Updated July 23, 2025 at 8:09 AM CDT
A federal judge on Monday sentenced a former Louisville police officer to 33 months in prison for using excessive force during a 2020 raid that killed Breonna Taylor, declining a Justice Department recommendation that he receive very little prison time.
Brett Hankison fired 10 shots during the botched raid, none of which hit Taylor. Prosecutors accused him of wanton endangerment after firing blindly through a window and a glass door, covered by blinds and a curtain, obstructing his line of sight.
He is the only officer to face prison time.
In November, a federal jury found Hankison guilty of violating Taylor's civil rights by using excessive force. The maximum sentence is life in prison.
Last week, the Trump administration asked the judge to give Hankison one day in prison. The judge said that wasn't appropriate and sentenced him to nearly three years behind bars.
Speaking to NPR on Tuesday, the Taylor family lawyer, Benjamin Crump, said, "I have never, in my life or my career, seen anything like this."
"The fact, as Breonna Taylor's mother said, it was as if Brett Hankison had both lawyers arguing on his behalf, and nobody was arguing for Breonna Taylor," Crump told All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro.
NPR reached out to the Justice Department, and a spokesman declined to comment on Crump's criticisms.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Interview highlights
Ari Shapiro: What has the family said to you?
Benjamin Crump: The family continues to remain vigilant and trying to make sure they keep Breonna Taylor's name alive.
Tamika (Palmer, Breonna Taylor's mother) said it best. She said, "Well, I got some justice."
But they wanted more. After witnessing what they witnessed from the Department of Justice prosecutor, she was grateful that she got any justice.
I mean, Ari, the judge was advocating for equal justice more than the Department of Justice.
They were trying to exonerate Brett Hankison. They were saying, we don't even know if a crime was committed.
And the judge had to stop and explain to him that violation of her civil rights, affront to the Fourth Amendment seizure was the law, and that she could not believe he was arguing that they didn't think it was a crime committed.
It just goes to show you what this administration thinks about the killing of Black people and how far they will go to protect police officers.
Shapiro: Under the Biden administration, Louisville police agreed to a consent decree to reform the department with federal oversight for five years, and the Trump administration canceled that plan in May. So, do you think there is still potential for real change to come out of this?
Crump: We remain optimistic. We know any change in policy and any chance at equal justice for marginalized people of color means we're going to have to fight for it.
And we're going to have to fight like we never did before. And we're fighting strategically on the state level and city level. So, we are optimistic that the mayor and the city leadership of Louisville are going to respect the consent decree agreement, even if the Trump administration abandons it.
Shapiro: And when you look at the national picture, what do you think the Justice Department's position in this case says broadly about the future of racial justice and police reform in this country?
Crump: It pretty much says we're going to have to save ourselves.
The historical framework where the federal government stepped in to help marginalize people in bigotry and discriminatory matters — that won't be there anymore.
We're going to have to fight to save ourselves, and hopefully everybody understands that there has been an outright declaration of war on Black and brown people when it comes to equal justice.
Editor's note:
When the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division announced it was canceling the consent decree with Louisville, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon told reporters that "federal micromanagement of local police should be a rare exception and not the norm."
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