The Kentucky police officer who blindly fired 10 bullets into Breonna Taylor's home in 2020 during a botched raid has been sentenced to nearly three years, her family's lawyer said Monday.
Former Louisville Metro Police Department detective Brett Hankison was sentenced to 33 months Monday after he was convicted of deprivation of rights under color of law in November in connection with the raid that killed Taylor, attorney Lonita Baker said.
Hankison will serve three years of probation after his prison term ends, Baker said.
Last week, the Justice Department said Hankison should be sentenced to a single day in prison because, it argued, he posed no threat to the public.
Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse Monday, Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, said U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings "did the best she could with what she had to work with."
"There was no prosecution in there for us," she told reporters." There was no prosecution in there for Brianna."
Asked whether the sentence represented justice, Palmer said: "We got something. I don’t think it was a fair sentencing, but it was a start."
Probation officials had recommended a sentence of 135 to 168 months, The Associated Press reported.
A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a sentencing memo filed last week, the Justice Department wrote that “reasonable minds might disagree as to whether defendant Hankison’s conduct constituted a seizure under the Fourth Amendment in the first place” and that there “is no need for a prison sentence to protect the public from defendant.”
A few dozen people outside the courthouse protested in support of Taylor throughout the day, and at one point several were arrested after they created what the police described in a statement as an "unsafe environment."
Bianca Austin, Taylor’s aunt, was among them, arrest documents show. According to a complaint, she was in the middle of an intersection clapping her hands and blocking cars before she approached officers and yelled in their faces.
Austin was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and obstructing a highway. It was not immediately clear whether she has a lawyer to speak on her behalf. Jail records show she remained in custody Monday night.
"We understand this case caused pain and damaged trust between our department and the community," the police department said in a statement. "We particularly respect and value the 1st Amendment. However, what we saw today in front of the courthouse in the street was not safe, acceptable or legal."
Federal prosecutors said Hankison fired through a window and a sliding glass door that was covered with a curtain and blinds. The shots hit a wall and traveled into an apartment next door but did not hit Taylor.
Taylor was killed by shots from other officers, who were not charged because they were returning fire when Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired as police breached the apartment.
In a statement last week, Taylor's lawyers called Hankison's sentence recommendation an "insult" that sets a "dangerous precedent" in how civil rights or Black people are maintained.
"It is unfathomable that, after finally securing a conviction, the Department of Justice would seek a sentence so drastically below the federal guidelines," the statement added.
The legal team said recommending a single day in prison "sends the unmistakable message that white officers can violate the civil rights of Black Americans with near-total impunity."
The attorneys said Palmer still hoped that the judge would "do what the DOJ has refused to do — uphold the law, respect the jury's verdict, and deliver true justice for Breonna Taylor."
