In the Brett Hankison November 2023 trial, the Prosecution was determined to prove Brett guilty as charged. They seemed to despise him.
Attorney Mathews made clear in his closing that Brett’s bullets did not harm anyone. Deputy Chief Humphrey said on the stand that there are certain limited situations when an officer may disregard the rules, such as a rule to be able to visualize the target. The ‘totality’ of the situation defines what is reasonable; what would jury members do if they had stood in Brett’s shoes?
Brett’s testimony was that he saw a rifle and knew he would need to act quickly. The USA insisted: “Deadly force can only be used as a last resort when other options are not available” —according to LMPD training. Brett: “Unfortunately, Mr. Walker chose deadly force at the start — at the top of the force continuum.”
The prosecution continually pointed out that it’s impossible to see through blinds and a black-out curtain, but never acknowledged that muzzle flashes will illuminate a dark room so that some things are visible from the outside. A Defense exhibit showed the curtain was gauzy, not solid. (The media stopped reporting that the drapery in question was opaque.)
The USA stated numerous times that Breonna was known to be innocent of wrongdoing and there was no reason for the police to be serving the warrant— “That's what you testified to, this was not a search that was looking for narcotics; correct?” Hankison: “Sir, they sent my narcotics drug dog there. Of course they were looking for narcotics.”
Cosgrove was portrayed as a hero, Brett as a coward. Cosgrove stepped forward to protect Mattingly while Brett slunk away to shoot behind the protection of vehicles in the parking lot.
But Brett did not shoot from behind vehicles.
In Attorney Matthews’ direct examination of Brett, he asked: “Did you fire blindly when you fired those shots?” Brett: “No.” Matthews: “Where did you fire those shots from?” Brett: “I fired from the sidewalk area, sidewalk or handicap ramp area.” Matthews also pointed out that the trajectory patterns of Brett’s bullets proved that his shots went where he testified that he directed them.
Brett explained that if he had positioned himself between a car and truck, and then between a truck and a van, as the USA accused, he would have lost precious time in stopping the active shooter.
Nevertheless, in the USA closing argument, the prosecutor accused Brett of shooting from behind cover: “He ran to the parking lot and took cover behind a truck, then he started firing… And it just so happens that that is also exactly where all the physical evidence was found. Every one of the defendant’s shell casings were found near the back of that gray Mitsubishi truck.”
In fact, the location of Brett’s shell casings prove that he shot from the sidewalk area.
The magazine shown in the left image was dispensed when Brett went to the parking lot following the shootout. His tenth casing was found under one of the vehicles. Defense Attorney Byrd noted that Brett’s shell casings struck the van seven times, but these were not documented by the LMPD, and without such evidence one cannot tell where the casings ‘impacted and landed’.
The LMPD staff and officers who took the stand testified that spent casings are ejected back and right.
Brett’s testimony added some information. He said that sometimes a shell ‘will go straight up and come right back down on you,’ and sometimes go further right. He noted that during training at the range one could sometimes be hit by ‘hot brass’ from another officer’s shell.
The above view of the breezeway (foyer) area shows that casings from Sgt. Mattingly’s and Det. Cosgrove’s guns were ejected back and right and in other places. The green LMPD marker #20 was identified as one of Cosgrove’s spent casings; another was found on the stairs. The collage shows the door of Apt. 4 under the stairwell, numerous marked casings, an inset photo of Marker #20, and the ram identified by LMPD marker #21, helping us understand the exhibits and numbering on the police website evidence document.
Moreover, a Police Study documented on the ActiveResponseTraining website found that—
In tests, over 25 percent of the spent cartridge casings landed somewhere other than to the right and rear of the shooter where it is commonly accepted they should land.
Factors such as firearm design, firearm condition, ammunition type, position firearm is held when fired, movement of the firearm and person during firing, and grip factors such as how, where and how tightly the firearm is held during firing, can affect the locations of spent cartridge casings.
The minimum distance the spent cartridge casings traveled was 3.61 inches (9.17 cm) and the farthest distance was 253.40 inches (643.64 cm) or about 21 feet.
Considering this readily available professional research study, and the photographs from the LMPD website that show the other officers’ spent casings, the USA accusations are a shock to the conscience.