Louisville’s police department is moving to fire Brett Hankison, one of three officers to fire weapons on March 13 at Breonna Taylor’s apartment, killing her, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports. Hankison is accused by the interim police chief, Robert Schroeder, of “blindly” firing 10 rounds into Taylor’s apartment, creating a substantial danger of death and serious injury. “I find your conduct a shock to the conscience,” Schroeder told Hankison, laying out the charges against him. “I am alarmed and stunned you used deadly force in this fashion.” Hankison is accused of violating departmental policies on adherence to rules and regulations and use of deadly force. Schroeder said Hankison was previously disciplined for reckless conduct in early 2019.
A pretermination hearing is expected to take place in the next week, where Hankison and his attorney David Leightty, will respond to the allegations. The other two officers who fired their weapons at Taylor’s apartment — Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and Officer Myles Cosgrove — remain on administrative reassignment. Mayor Greg Fischer said, “Unfortunately, due to a provision in state law that I would very much like to see changed, both the chief and I are precluded from talking about what brought us to this moment or even the timing of this decision.” Hankison also has been accused of sexual assault by multiple women in viral social media posts. The allegations are similar, saying that he offered intoxicated women a ride home from bars before sexually assaulting them. Sam Aguiar, an attorney for Taylor’s family, said about Hankison’s firing: “It’s about damn time.”