Evidence leak appears to show officer in Breonna Taylor’s apartment after fatal shooting

Footage emerged over the weekend that appears to show Louisville police officer Brett Hankison enter Breonna Taylor’s residence after her shooting death last March.

Hankison was the sole Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officer indicted last week following the raid that resulted in the killing of Taylor.

The emerged video has prompted concerns about the probe into the fatal police shooting.

The footage, which was released by Vice News over the weekend and reviewed by the Louisville Courier Journal, shows an officer identified as Hankison arrive at Taylor’s apartment in Louisville as authorities looked over the crime scene. 

Moments after, the officer is seen in apparent body camera footage entering the front of the apartment, asking another officer off-screen, “That’s theirs?” According to the Courier Journal, Hankison appeared to be asking about a shell casing in the apartment.

“That’s ours, it looks like,” the other officer responds off-screen in the clip, which runs for about 34 seconds. He then tells Hankison, “I’d back out until they get PIU [Public Integrity Unit] in here.”

“Are there any guns visible?” Hankison asks with a flashlight in hand shortly before the clip ends.

According to Vice News, another officer involved in the March shooting, Myles Cosgrove, was also seen entering Taylor’s apartment with a rifle shortly after her death. The outlet reported that bodycam footage it reviewed does not show the officer guided out of the crime scene at any point.

The outlet also reported that LMPD Sgt. Jason Vance noted in his investigative report that investigators “observed Detective Hankison walking in and out of the primary scene.”

“At 0200 hours Sergeant Wilder and I verbally requested Hankison to remove himself from the primary scene and make contact with members of LMPD Peer Support,” he reportedly stated in the report.

That report also stated, according to Vice News, that investigators “learned Detective Hankison deviated from standard LMPD practices for an officer involved in a critical incident and left the scene location without his assigned LMPD Peer Support escort.”

“Hankison deviated from the standard protocol when he traveled unattended to University of Louisville Hospital having contact with CID command and Police Chief Steve Conrad,” the report continued, according to Vice News. 

The Hill has reached out to the LMPD for comment.

The Courier Journal noted in its report on Monday that a spokesperson for the police department declined to comment and said the investigative file for the case “has not been released by the department at this time.”

The spokesperson also said an “internal review” remains ongoing.

The report comes several days after a grand jury decided not to indict any of the officers involved in the fatal shooting of Taylor with charges related to her death.