Former Louisville police officer Brett Hankison was sentenced Monday to 33 months in prison and three years of supervised release for his role in a 2020 police raid that killed an unarmed woman and helped ignite national racial justice protests.
The U.S. Department of Justice had recommended that Hankison, who was part of the team who came to Breonna Taylor’s apartment with a “no-knock” search warrant, be sentenced to a single day of time served.
After a nearly five-hour sentencing hearing at the Gene Snyder federal courthouse in downtown Louisville, U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings, an appointee of President Donald Trump, said she was “troubled” by the sentencing memorandum and arguments, which she said appeared to minimize the encounter that resulted in Taylor’s death.
Though Hankison did not fire the shots that killed Taylor, a police internal investigation determined that he shot indiscriminately from outside the apartment through a covered sliding glass door and window, hitting a neighbor’s apartment. He was convicted last year of violating Taylor’s civil rights.
Jennings also said certain phrases in the memorandum appeared to “harken to political issues” and said she would not “be swayed” by politics.
The courtroom on Monday was at capacity an hour before the hearing began. An overflow room quickly filled as well, where attendees gasped, cried and shook their heads throughout the proceedings.
Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, said outside the courthouse after the hearing that she felt like her family had “no prosecution” fighting for them.
Tamika Palmer, Breonna Taylor’s mother, speaks outside the Gene Snyder federal courthouse in downtown Louisville after Brett Hankison was sentence to 33 months in prison on July 21, 2025. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)
The DOJ lawyer, Robert J. Keenan, argued that Hankison fired to protect life and defend his fellow officers and stressed that “Brett Hankison did not kill Miss Taylor” nor injure her or anyone else. He also said there is a public perception that everything that went wrong the night that Taylor died is Hankison’s responsibility, which is “not true” according to fact and law.
“I think the judge did the best she could with what she had to work with,” Palmer said.
Palmer, who gave a victim impact statement to the court along with Taylor’s aunts and cousin, brought an envelope full of other victims’ statements that the judge said she was “upset” to not have received earlier. The government, Jennings said, has a responsibility to submit victim statements and to not have received them earlier was a “disservice.”
Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney representing the family, said the delay in submitting letters was “insult on top of injury, literally.”
Lonita Baker, one of the family’s lawyers, said “while 33 months in prison is not enough, it’s more than they were asking for, and we do have to commend the judge for taking the time to listen, to push back and to express her disappointment.”
Jennings said the government had made a 180-degree turn on the case without any change to the underlying facts. The way the sentencing memorandum praised the work of the jury that previously found Hankison guilty of violating Taylor’s civil rights while also questioning the justice of the charge is “incongruous” and “inappropriate,” Jennings said.
Six people who testified as character witnesses for Hankison, including his daughter and several police officers, told the judge that his legal battles since 2020 over Taylor’s death had taken a significant mental toll on him and his loved ones. They also asked the judge for a light sentence so he could care for his aging mother.
Breonna Taylor protesters outside the Gene Snyder federal courthouse in downtown Louisville on. July 21, 2025. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)
On the night Hankison and others came to Taylor’s apartment in March 2020 with a “no-knock” search warrant, police were investigating a former boyfriend of Taylor’s who lived at a different address. Taylor, an unarmed Black woman, and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were in bed when police broke into the apartment. Walker fired at what he thought were intruders breaking into the residence, striking Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in his thigh. Mattingly initially sued Walker but dropped the case voluntarily in 2023.
Hankison and two other officers fired their guns a total of 32 times. Hankison fired from outside the apartment through a covered sliding glass door and window, hitting a neighbor’s apartment. It was later determined that officer Myles Cosgrove fired the shot that killed Taylor, whose death led to massive protests in Louisville and beyond. He was not charged and was later hired by a police force in Carroll County.
Outside the courthouse around 6:30 p.m., a small crowd chanted “Say her name” and “Breonna Taylor!” One man cried out, when the sentence was delivered, “It ain’t enough!”
Jennings said Hankison, not presenting a flight risk, can voluntarily surrender once the Bureau of Prisons sets a time and location for him to do so. She is also requiring him to seek mental health treatment for his reported post traumatic stress disorder. His legal team plans to appeal the sentence.
Breonna Taylor protestors rally outside the Gene Snyder federal courthouse in downtown Louisville, July 21, 2025. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)
