26-year-old Taylor and her boyfriend were sleeping when officers kicked in the front door of their home. Taylor’s friend thought it was an intruder and fired a shot at the officers. Three of them responded with a hail of bullets. Taylor was hit by six bullets.
Officer Brett Hankison fired as many as ten times without hitting anyone, according to prosecutors. Reason for the public prosecutor to prosecute him for excessive force. Previous attempts had been made to prosecute him for endangering Taylor’s neighbors. He was acquitted of this last year.
Hankison is the only one of the shooting officers to face criminal charges.
Last year, another former officer, Kelly Goodlett, admitted that she helped forge the search warrant on which the raid was based after the shooting. She also said she lied to the detectives who investigated the case. Two more officers will be tried next year on suspicion of obstructing the investigation.