Ex-officer sentenced to nearly three years for role in Breonna Taylor's killing
Brett Hankison, who fired 10 shots during the raid but didn't hit anyone, was the only officer on the scene charged in the Black woman's death. He is the first person sentenced to prison in the case that rocked the city of Louisville and spawned weeks of street protests over police brutality five years ago.
Last week, the justice department recommended a one-day jail sentence and supervised release in Hankison's case. In a sentencing memorandum, assistant attorney general for civil rights Harmeet K Dhillon and senior counsel Robert J Keenan said Hankison had suffered psychological stress from the legal battle.
The US district judge Rebecca Grady Jennings sentenced Hankison at a hearing Monday afternoon. She said that no prison time 'is not appropriate' for Hankison and said she was 'startled' that there weren't more people injured in the raid.
Hankison will serve 33 months in prison as well as three years of supervised probation.
Although Hankison did not hit anyone, he shot into Taylor's bedroom window, through blinds and a blackout curtain, and a neighboring apartment, where a couple with a five-year-old child lived.
He was found guilty in November 2024 of one count of civil rights abuse and faced a maximum sentence of life in prison.
In May, Donald Trump's justice department canceled work on an agreement to enter into a consent decree with the city of Louisville. The agreement would have given the justice department authority to supervise Louisville's efforts to overhaul its police training and use-of-force policies.
In September 2020, six months after her death, Taylor's family received a $12m wrongful death settlement from the city of Louisville. Her family's civil rights attorney, Ben Crump, told the Associated Press on Monday that he hoped Hankison would get more time but 'we are grateful that he is at least going to prison and has to think for those three years about Breonna Taylor and that her life mattered'.
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BBC News
4 minutes ago
- BBC News
Church abuse victim stages quiet protest at General Synod
Jenny Read says she was abused as a little girl at a church in the north-east of England. Last week she protested outside a meeting of the Church of England's parliament as it signed off on a compensation scheme for abuse victims, which she says is too little, too late. It is 07:30 BST on a grey, humid July morning in city is hosting General Synod - the Church of England's parliament - which is about to approve the landmark compensation Read, who travelled from her north-east of England home because she "had to be here", has already set up says, as a child, she was "sadistically" abused over a number of years at her local church by her own father, and also by a male curate and a female church adulthood, she and her sisters, who also say they were abused as children by the same people, reported the allegations to the Church of England three times, but it never launched a formal investigation. Ms Read is at General Synod to protest. But she is not blocking traffic, nor is she chanting or shouting into a megaphone. She is sitting peacefully in a camping chair opposite Central Hall, where the event is being held, drinking a cup of tea and eating a is quiet, but she no longer feels silenced and her presence is her stands a banner she has made. In big red, black and green letters it reads: "Three sisters sadistically abused at a NE church still waiting for justice." Ms Read's appearance in the shadow of the chamber housing the most powerful figures in the Church of England is the day members of the public, bishops, clergymen and clergywomen approach her to ask what her story is. Some take over food and Read says she is here to tell Church leaders that there is an "urgent need" to treat people who report abuse allegations with kindness because "that hasn't been our experience".Her fight for answers has been re-traumatising, she says, but she has waived her right to anonymity in order to share her may have passed but the mental anguish caused by the abuse and the alleged "fobbing off" from Church leaders has not, she a face-to-face meeting with her in May, Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, the interim leader of the Church, offered an "unequivocal apology" for the abuse she had experienced and "recognised that it will have affected her life in many ways".Last month, following a BBC investigation which revealed the Read sisters' story, the Church of England also said it was "truly sorry" for the response they received when they made their initial reports. 'Survivor focused' compensation The Church has put aside £150m for what it is calling the Redress Scheme, to which any victim of Church-related abuse can apply. It was agreed by General Synod, but still needs to be officially signed off by the Church says the scheme is "survivor focused" and "offers more than money".As well as financial compensation, which can range from £5,000 to £660,000, survivors and victims can also receive "a formal apology, acknowledgment, therapeutic support, and other forms of bespoke redress", it can be made via a designated website and "independently assessed by trained assessors" who will consider the type of abuse, aggravating factors and the impact on the victim, it will then decide the level of compensation and support given."This is about the Church facing its past failures with honesty and humility," it says. The Right Reverend Philip Mounstephen, who chairs the Church's Redress Board, says it is "a matter of great shame" that the scheme is needed. He has previously said it was unclear how many people would apply."I am confident the scheme will provide much needed redress to survivors," he says, adding it will be "bespoke" for each scheme has already been delayed by several years and, for Ms Read, it is too has already "spent so many hours and months" in therapy and does not want to "spend any more of my remaining years trekking to therapists", she says."Even if I got the highest award possible, that doesn't compensate for my trauma."Ms Read has been diagnosed with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder linked to her childhood abuse which has, at times, plagued her adult relationships have been affected and she has only ever been able to work part has panic attacks in religious buildings which make her feel "terrorised" to the point she "has to scream" and get out. Episodes of feeling suicidal mean she "has struggled to survive" on occasions. "Redress sounds good but, from past experience, I can't quite believe it," Ms Read says."It's really urgent to highlight the need for the Church to get safeguarding right, not just on paper but in actions."Her silent protest brought some closure and, after decades of her feeling dismissed, people have eventually listened, she says."I feel like my voice has finally been heard. I can now move on with the rest of my life." Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
The US cities left behind as Trump ends key police accountability reforms
US communities that have contended with police violence are losing a major accountability measure to curb abuse. In late May, the Trump administration's Department of Justice announced a reversal in investigations and consent decrees – agreements between federal officials to hold law enforcement agencies accountable to reform – for several major police departments. The move came years after the Biden administration launched investigations into some law enforcement agencies, specifically as racial justice protests kicked off in the summer of 2020. Louisville metro police department (LMPD) is one department that saw its justice department investigation ended, despite its high-profile police controversies. In March 2020, LMPD officers shot and killed Breonna Taylor, a 27-year-old emergency room technician, as she slept in bed with her boyfriend. Police forcibly entered Taylor's home using a 'no-knock' warrant, firing 32 bullets into Taylor's home. Taylor's death sparked international outcry as the Black Lives Matter protests spread across the world. Since 2012, LMPD has also come under scrutiny for its Violent Incident Prevention, Enforcement and Response Unit. Officers, who often wear plainclothes, were found to routinely violate the civil rights of Black and brown residents; the unit was dissolved in 2015. Following Taylor's death, the justice department launched an investigation into LMPD, determining in 2023 that it had '[engaged] in a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the U.S. Constitution and federal law', including excessive force, unlawful searches and detentions, discriminating against Black people in their enforcement. Louisville officials pledged to carry out reforms in response to the justice department's findings. A consent decree that was negotiated was still awaiting approval from a judge. But on 21 May, the Trump administration rolled back previous agreements and investigations to curb police abuse in Louisville and nearly two dozen other cities in the US. 'Today, we are ending the Biden Civil Rights Division's failed experiment of handcuffing local leaders and police departments with factually unjustified consent decrees,' said Harmeet K Dhillon, the head of the justice department's civil rights division, in an announcement. For community activists in affected cities, the justice department's rollback on police reform doesn't entirely come as a shock. Donald Trump established himself as a 'law and order' candidate during the 2024 presidential election and his administration previously signaled that they would end police reform progress in April. Still, the justice department's rollback of reforms is a significant breakdown in progress towards ending police abuses. 'It's very disappointing that the Trump administration is having his DOJ abdicate their statutory authority to investigate police departments and other municipalities under pattern and practice allegations and to make sure that everyone's civil rights are being enforced,' said Kungu Njuguna, a policy strategist at the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky. The justice department also announced that it would drop civil rights investigations looking into the conduct of several embattled law enforcement agencies including those in Phoenix, Arizona; Trenton, New Jersey; and Mount Vernon, New York. The agency has also ended a consent decree in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Consent decrees have long been used as a federal intervention into police departments: their implementation began with the passage of the 1994 crime bill, which included a small number of accountability measures for law enforcement. Those reforms were sparked by Los Angeles police officers beating Rodney King in 1991 and protests that came after. The decrees historically have varied in effectiveness. While legally binding, different administrations have weakened them based on their own partisan affiliation. But for community members, consent decrees and broader investigations into misconduct can represent a positive change forward. In Trenton, the justice department's oversight offered a 'glimmer' for residents, said Austin Edward, president of the NAACP Trenton chapter. 'For the first time, having the federal government actually come in and say: 'Something is going wrong here in Trenton,' and finally listening to what the people have been saying for a long time? That's where that hope lies,' he said. 'A lot of people are very disappointed with the fact that we don't have any other recourse at the moment.' Despite the changes in federal oversight, some cities have already committed to passing reform. The Louisville mayor Craig Greenberg and the city's police chief Paul Humphrey promised to carry out the recommended changes, even without the consent decree. Trenton officials also promised to continue enacting reforms. (In 2024, a justice department investigation found that the Trenton police department engaged in a pattern of misconduct against city residents after police shot and paralyzed an unarmed Black man during a traffic stop.) 'We are moving ahead rapidly to continue implementing police reform that ensures constitutional policing while providing transparency and accountability to the public,' said Greenberg in a presser about the DOJ changes. 'I made a promise to our community, and we are keeping that promise.' Njuguna said that the ACLU is still examining what exact reforms Louisville officials are planning to implement and how much they differ from the justice department's former recommendations. But critics have said it is unclear if city officials can be trusted to hold themselves accountable and implement the entirety of the justice department's previous recommendations. Greenberg himself publicly contested the justice department's findings on the LMPD in January 2025, later clarifying that he would accept the report. 'We're kind of in a low to zero environment of trust with the community and LMPD,' said Njuguna. 'Without that independent oversight from the federal government, I think it's hard for some people to believe that LMPD is capable of policing its own.' In the meantime, activists and city officials have launched campaigns to bring attention to step backs in police reform. The People's Consent Decree, a list of demands for LMPD originally launched in 2024, has been gaining additional attention as the justice department ends their finding. The decree, which outlines demands for police accountability, was a collaborative effort between Louisville advocacy groups with the goal of having the city council adopt the measure. Involved groups, said Njuguna, are coming together to help educate the public on what a consent decree is and what rollbacks on progress are in effect. They hope to eventually see the plan implemented at a citywide level.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Kamala Harris' former advisor left flustered after being asked simple question about economy
A former senior adviser to Kamala Harris was left visibly flustered during a live television segment after he failed to accurately answer a basic question about the current U.S. inflation rate. During a Friday appearance on Fox News ' America Reports, anchor Sandra Smith pressed Mike Nellis, once a Senior Advisor to former Vice President Harris, on the latest economic data, asking, 'Do you know what the inflation rate is?' 'Yeah, it's like about three or four percent,' Nellis responded. But Smith quickly fired back, correcting him. 'No. It's below three. And it's been a long time since it's gotten there. I mean, you're looking at 2.5 percent inflation now.' According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 2.7 percent year-over-year in June. While slightly above Smith's figure, the inflation rate has remained below 3 percent for several consecutive months, reflecting a significant cooldown from its 9.1 percent peak in June 2022 - the highest in four decades, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Despite the data, Nellis insisted that inflation continues to rise. 'Inflation is still going up,' he said. 'And it's rising, according to the latest stats.' 'That's not the case,' Smith countered. 'Inflation has come down. Inflation by nature is growth in prices, but the growth has slowed.' Earlier in the segment, Nellis blamed Republicans and President Donald Trump for ongoing economic concerns. 'Right now the president of the United States is Donald Trump. Republicans are in control of Congress,' Nellis said. 'They're currently in recess rather than doing anything about inflation.' He went on to claim that beef and alcohol prices hit record highs over the July 4 weekend and criticized Trump's promises to reduce prices immediately after taking office. 'Donald Trump promised to make grocery prices go down on day one,' Nellis said. 'We're six months in and everything's more expensive.' Smith pushed back, noting that 'prices have definitely come down,' but that 'they can go down more.' Meanwhile, some economic indicators suggest relief for American consumers, according to AAA, average gas prices hit a four-year low in June. The tense exchange came just days after the Democratic Party had its own messaging blunder when its official X account posted a graphic blaming inflation from 2021 to 2024 on 'Trump's America' - even though Joe Biden and Harris were in charge the whole time. The post later deleted. The White House later shared the same graphic again, this time fixing the mistake and crediting the Biden administration. That slip-up highlights the tough spot Democrats are in as they face growing criticism over the party's handling of the economy. A new Wall Street Journal poll this week showed that 63 percent of voters view the Democratic Party unfavorably - the worst rating they've seen in 35 years. Just 33 percent said they view the party favorably, and only 8 percent said they had a 'very favorable' view, according to the poll. In contrast, Republicans, while also viewed more unfavorably than favorably, had stronger numbers - sitting at just 19 percent. President Trump's job approval stands at 46 percent, higher than the 40 percent approval rating he received at the same point in his first term, according to the WSJ. When asked which party they trusted more on major issues such as inflation, tariffs, and immigration, voters consistently favored Republicans. 'The Democratic brand is so bad that they don't have the credibility to be a critic of Trump or the Republican Party,' Democratic pollster John Anzalone, who conducted the WSJ poll with Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio, said. 'Until they reconnect with real voters and working people on who they're for and what their economic message is, they're going to have problems.' Republicans currently hold a financial edge as well, with campaign filings showing the Republican National Committee has over $80 million on hand, compared to $15 million held by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the WSJ reported.
