A federal jury on Friday found a former Kentucky police detective guilty of using excessive force on Breonna Taylor during a botched 2020 drug raid that led to her death.

The 12-member jury returned its verdict late at night after exonerating Brett Hankison earlier in the evening on charges that he used excessive force on Taylor’s neighbors.

This was the first conviction of a Louisville police officer involved in the deadly raid.

Some of the jury members burst into tears while the verdict was read at around 21.30 on Friday. They had previously stated in two separate messages to the judge that they had reached an impasse by accusing Taylor of using excessive force, but they chose to continue negotiating. The six-male, six-female jury deliberated for more than 20 hours over three days.

Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, celebrated the verdict with friends outside the federal courthouse and said: “It took a long time. It took a lot of patience. It was difficult. “Jurors took the time to truly understand that Breonna deserved justice.”

Hankison fired 10 shots at Taylor’s glass door and windows during the raid, but did not hit anyone. Some of the gunfire also spread to the next-door neighbour’s adjacent flat.

The death of the 26-year-old Black woman and the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020 sparked racial injustice protests across the country.

While a separate jury last year deadlocked on federal charges against Hankison, a jury in 2022 acquitted Hankison of state wanton endangerment charges.

The conviction against Hankison carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Hankison, 48, argued throughout the trial that he acted to protect his fellow officers after Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, opened fire on them when they broke down Taylor’s door with a battering ram.

That grand jury sent a note to U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings on Thursday asking whether they should have known whether Taylor was alive when Hankison fired.

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This was a point of contention during closing arguments, when Hankison’s attorney, Don Malarcik, told the jury that once Hankison was fired, prosecutors had to “prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ms. Taylor is alive.”

After the jury submitted the question, Jennings urged them to keep thinking.

Walker shot and injured one of the police officers. Hankison testified that Walker walked away when he fired, turned around the corner of the apartment and fired at Taylor’s glass door and window.

Meanwhile, officers at the door returned Walker’s fire and shot and killed Taylor, who was in the hallway.

Hankison’s attorneys argued in closing arguments Wednesday that Hankison acted properly in a “very tense, very chaotic environment” that lasted about 12 seconds. They emphasized that Hankison’s shots did not hit anyone.

Hankison was one of four officers charged by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2022 with violating Taylor’s civil rights. So far, those charges have yielded only one conviction: a plea deal by a former police officer who was not present at the raid and was a cooperating witness in another case.

Malarcik, Hankison’s attorney, spoke at length during closing arguments about the role of Taylor’s boyfriend in shooting at former Sgt. John Mattingly is at the door. He said Walker never tried to come to the door or turn on the lights while police were knocking, instead arming himself and hiding in the dark.

“Brett Hankison was 12 inches away from being shot by Kenneth Walker,” Malarcik said.

Prosecutors said Hankison acted recklessly, firing 10 shots at doors and windows where he could not see the target.

In their closing arguments, they said Hankison “violated one of the most basic rules of deadly force: If they can’t see the person they’re shooting at, they can’t pull the trigger.”

None of the officers who shot Taylor (Mattingly and former Detective Myles Cosgrove) were charged in Taylor’s death. Federal and state prosecutors said those officers were justified in returning fire because Taylor’s boyfriend opened fire on them first.