Officer charged in police raid that killed Breonna Taylor testifies in his trial

March 2 (UPI) -- Former Louisville Kentucky police detective Brett Hankison testified Wednesday that he mistook police gunfire for a suspect shooting at him during the raid that killed Breonna Taylor in March 2020.

Hankison is facing charges of wanton endangerment of Taylor's neighbors by firing into her apartment. His bullets did not hit anybody.

Prosecutors brought the charges because they say bullets fired by Hankison endangered a family of three in an apartment next to Taylor's.

Hankison testified that when he and a team of police officers rammed the door of the apartment, police Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly was shot by what appeared to Hankison to be a shadowy figure with a rifle in the apartment.

Kenneth Walker, who was in the apartment when police burst in without knocking, fired one shot from a handgun, hitting one officer in the thigh.

On the night of Taylor's killing, Walker told investigators he reached for a handgun and opened fire because the officers didn't identify themselves. The officers returned fire, striking Taylor eight times.

Hankison said on the witness stand that he heard several gunshots and saw gun flashes that led him to believe his fellow officers were being shot.

According to Kentucky Assistant Attorney General Barbara Whaley no rifle was found in the apartment.

Taylor's apartment was targeted by police for a no-knock raid March 13, 2020.

The city of Louisville reached a $12 million settlement with Breonna Taylor's family over the police killing of Taylor.

According to the New York Times, Hankison sounded nervous on the witness stand and choked up several times during his testimony.

Hankison fired 10 bullets through a sliding glass door in Taylor's apartment. Blinds were drawn at the time.

Hankison was fired in June 2020. Then-interim Louisville Police Chief Robert Schroeder accused Hankison of firing blindly in the apartment.