LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Federal prosecutors told a jury Wednesday that the actions of a former Louisville police detective were like “a shooting spree” when he fired 10 bullets into the side of Breonna Taylor’s apartment the night she was shot by police.

Former detective Brett Hankison couldn’t see what he was shooting the night of the 2020 raid, prosecutors argued in closing statements in Federal Retrial of Hankison. A jury of six men and six women began deliberating in the afternoon on two charges that Hankison’s shootings violated the civil rights of Taylor and her neighbors. The felony charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison if Hankison is convicted.

Hankison’s federal trial last year ended with a null trial when a jury deadlocked after failing to reach a verdict. He was acquitted in a 2022 in a state trial on charges of endangerment.

Hankison, 48, opened fire after a fellow officer was struck by a bullet fired by Taylor’s boyfriend, who was inside the apartment. The officers set fire to the door, killing Taylor. When the shooting began, Hankison left the door, rounded a corner and fired a volley into Taylor’s sliding glass door and a window.

“The defendant violated one of the most fundamental rules of deadly force, if he can’t see the person he’s shooting at, he can’t pull the trigger,” U.S. Attorney Michael Songer argued in his closing statement. Several officers and Louisville Police Chief Paul Humphrey testified during the case that officers should not fire without being able to identify a target.

Hankison’s shots did not hit anyone, although they did fly into a neighbor’s apartment, nearly hitting two people inside.

Songer said Hankison fired at opposite ends of the apartment unit “immediately, one after the other, like a drive-by shooting.”

But Hankison’s attorneys painted a different picture of the night of Taylor’s death, which sparked months of protests against police brutality in 2020.

They said Hankison was acting to save his fellow officers “in a very tense, very chaotic situation” that lasted about 12 seconds.

His attorneys pointed out that Hankison volunteered that night to help with the raid, that the officers were not told by their lookout that there would be more than one person in Taylor’s apartment, and that they did not know that Taylor’s apartment shared a wall with another apartment. behind her.

“This case is about Brett Hankison’s 10 shots that never hit anyone,” his attorney, Don Malarcik, said during his closing arguments. “Brett Hankison is accused of violating the constitutional rights of people he never met or knew existed.”

Hankison testified earlier this week that he thought a person armed with an AR-15 was shooting at officers from inside the apartment and moved to get out of the way and return fire when he saw muzzle flashes through the door and glass window on the side of the apartment. unit. Another officer testified earlier this week that the gunshots were the loudest he had ever heard.

But Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, had a gun, not a rifle, and fired a single shot that hit the former sergeant. Jonathan Mattingly in the leg. Mattingly and another officer at the door returned 22 shots, some of which struck Taylor. Malarcik said Mattingly was hit in the femoral artery and was 90 seconds away from dying before other officers treated him at the scene.

Hankison “did exactly what he was supposed to do,” Malarcik said. “He was acting to save lives.”

Mattingly testified earlier this week that he saw a person holding a gun at the end of the hallway before he was shot. Walker later told police he thought an intruder was breaking in when police broke down the door.

Hankison was one of the four officers who were charged by the US Department of Justice in 2022, violating Taylor’s civil rights. The two counts against him carry a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted. The other three accused former officers were involved in drafting the search warrant.