A former police officer in the US state of Kentucky has been found guilty of violating the civil rights of Breonna Taylor, a black woman who was killed in her own home during a botched raid four years ago.

Brett Hankison, 47, could face life in prison after being found guilty of using excessive force against a 26-year-old emergency room technician.

However, the jury also found Taylor not guilty of the charge of violating the human rights of one of his neighbors. This was Hankison’s third time being tried in the case.

But the verdict marks the first time an officer has been convicted in the deadly raid on March 13, 2020, when Taylor’s name became a rallying cry during that year’s racial justice unrest.

Taylor’s family members in court broke down in tears after the verdict was announced Friday, the Louisville Courier Journal reported.

According to the local newspaper, prosecutors asked for Hankison to be taken into custody immediately, but this request was rejected by the judge.

The jury, consisting of five white men, one black man and six white women, began deliberations on Wednesday.

The indictment accused Hankison of depriving Taylor of the right to be free from unreasonable seizures and depriving his neighbors of the right to be deprived of liberty without due process.

Hankison fired 10 times into Taylor’s apartment to protect his fellow officers when Taylor’s boyfriend opened fire after the officers broke down the door.

The former cop testified over two days during the retrial, telling jurors he was “trying to stay alive, trying to keep my partners alive.”

Hankison was the first of the four officers charged in the case to appear before a jury.

Another former police officer, Kelly Goodlett, pleaded guilty to falsifying a search warrant for Taylor’s home.

Federal charges against the remaining two officers were dismissed by a judge earlier this year. The US justice department recently indicted the duo on new charges.

Taylor was killed after plainclothes police executed a “no-knock” search warrant at his home. In the early hours of the morning, she and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, broke into her apartment while she was sleeping.

Authorities believed Taylor was using her ex-boyfriend’s home to hide narcotics.

When they broke down the door, Mr. Walker fired a single shot, striking police officer Sergeant John Mattingly in the leg. Mr Walker said the officers did not identify themselves as police and he thought they were intruders.

All three officers returned fire, firing 32 bullets into the apartment.

Another officer fired the gun that killed Taylor, but prosecutors said his use of deadly force was justified because Walker opened fire first.

Hankison’s bullets hit no one, but they entered a neighboring property where a pregnant woman, a five-year-old child and a man were sleeping.

A subsequent police report contained errors, including listing Taylor’s injuries as “none” and saying no force was used to gain entry when the battering ram was used.

Hankison was fired from the Louisville Metro Police Department in June 2020.

His previous federal trial last year ended in a mistrial after the jury told the judge it could not reach a unanimous verdict.

He was previously tried by a Kentucky state jury in March 2022 and was acquitted of three counts of wanton endangerment.

Taylor’s family and Walker received payments from the city in connection with the incident.

A series of police reforms have also been initiated in Louisville.

Hankison is expected to be sentenced on March 12 next year.