Trump Administration Requests Ex-Officer Convicted In Breonna Taylor Shooting Be Given One-Day Prison Sentence By Sean Neumann

Donald Trump’s Justice Department is recommending that an ex-police officer who blindly shot into Breonna Taylor’s home during a botched “no-knock” raid in 2020 serve no prison time ahead of his sentencing next week, according to a new filing obtained by PEOPLE.

Taylor was shot and killed during the police raid on her home, as plain-clothed officers busted into her Louisville, Ky., apartment without warning while searching for her ex-boyfriend. Taylor’s then-boyfriend believed the plain-clothed officers were intruders and opened fire on them, leading to officers returning fire with their weapons and killing the 26-year-old hospital worker in the process.

During the deadly police raid, former Louisville officer Brett Hankison fired blindly into Taylor’s home and also sent bullets into a neighboring home, just missing a pregnant mother and a young sleeping child next door, according to NBC News, CNN, and USA Today. 

Hankison was fired from the police force in June 2020. “I find your conduct a shock to the conscience,” then-Louisville Police Chief Robert Schroeder told Hankison at the time. “I am alarmed and stunned you used deadly force in this fashion.”

The disgraced officer was later charged for his involvement in the botched raid at the state and federal level. 

Hankison was acquitted on a state charge, according to NBC News. However, Hankinson was found guilty of violating Taylor’s civil rights by a federal judge last year, PEOPLE previously reported. Hankinson, who is set to be sentenced on July 21, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, according to The New York Times.

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In this week’s filing, obtained by PEOPLE, the Trump administration is now recommending that a federal judge sentence Hankison to one day in prison – a sentence that would amount to no prison time because Hankison would get credit for the day he was arrested and initially appeared in court.

An attorney for the Trump administration argues that although the ex-officer “was part of the team executing the warrant, Defendant Hankison did not shoot Ms. Taylor and is not otherwise responsible for her death.”

Federal prosecutors found that Hankison had fired 10 shots through a window leading into Taylor’s apartment, as well as a sliding glass door on her porch that was covered by curtains, NBC News reported. The outlet reported that a federal judge also ruled in February that it was reasonable to believe that Taylor was still alive when Hankison fired his initial shots into her apartment without being able to see where or who he was shooting towards.

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After Hankison’s guilty verdict last November, Taylor’s mother had tears in her eyes as she addressed the media, thanking the 12-person jury for choosing “to do the right thing” and determining “that Breonna deserved justice.”

This week’s recommendation by the Justice Department seeks to undercut that decision.

“The government respects the jury’s verdict, which will almost certainly ensure that defendant Hankison never serves as a law enforcement officer again and will also likely ensure that he never legally possesses a firearm again,” the Justice Department’s filing claims.

According to USA Today, the United States Probation Office provided a pre-sentencing recommendation last week that called for Hankison to be sentenced between 11.25 and 14 years in prison.