This story has been updated with new information.

A federal judge sentenced former Louisville Police detective Brett Hankison to 33 months in prison for the shots he fired during the fatal 2020 raid on Breonna Taylor’s apartment.

The July 21 sentence was in defiance of a last-minute request from federal prosecutors that Hankison receive only a one-day sentence.

Western District of Kentucky Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings said she was “troubled” by the prosecutors’ July 16 sentencing memorandum, as well as their arguments towards leniency in court on Monday.

“The seriousness of this crime is obvious,” she said at one point.

Briefly addressing the court, Hankison said in hindsight, if he knew all the facts about the situation during the raid he knew now, “I never would have fired my gun.”

He was convicted of violating Taylor’s civil rights the night she was killed by firing a total of 10 shots into her apartment through a sliding glass door and window that were covered by blinds. None of the shots Hankison fired hit her, though some passed into a neighboring apartment where a man, a pregnant woman and young child were present.

He was fired from LMPD for “blindly” shooting into Taylor’s apartment.

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Hankison has previously said he thought his fellow officers were being “executed” and was firing at muzzle flashes.

The killing of the 26-year-old Black ER technician prompted months of protests in Louisville and, alongside the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, helped fuel protests around the country in 2020.

Following the sentencing announcement, prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represented Taylor’s family, led a small crowd in chants of “say her name!” outside Louisville’s federal courthouse and criticized the shift in tune from federal prosecutors since U.S. President Donald Trump was sworn in.

“The prosecutors seemed to argue more for the defendant, Brett Hankison, than they argued for the victims, the family of Breonna Taylor,” he said.

“We are grateful that he is at least going to prison – and have to think for those three years about Breonna Taylor and that her life mattered.”

In the July 16 sentencing memorandum, the DOJ recommended Hankison serve a day in prison for his conviction — time already served — writing that “reasonable minds might disagree as to whether Hankison’s conduct constituted a seizure under the Fourth Amendment in the first place.”

The memorandum, signed by DOJ civil rights division senior counsel Robert J. Keenan, also said the DOJ “respects the jury’s verdict, which will almost certainly ensure that Hankison never serves as a law enforcement officer again and will also likely ensure he never legally possesses a firearm again.”

The sentencing memorandum saw backlash locally, with Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg saying in a statement that Hankison’s “actions warrant a serious prison sentence.”

In court on Monday, Keenan’s arguments followed similar themes, with the prosecutor repeatedly highlighting the chaos and potential danger Hankison found himself in the night Taylor was killed.

He also said that justice in Taylor’s death had largely been “achieved” through police reform and settlements to civil lawsuits.

Addressing the court in a victim’s statement, Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, said Keenan never spoke to her and did not recognize her when she showed up at court.

Meanwhile, Jennings expressed frustration that the federal government had not turned over numerous written victim impact statements for her to take into consideration when making her ruling, calling it “disconcerting.”

Following the 33-month sentence, Jennings said Hankison will be required to serve three years on supervised release while also receiving mental health treatment.

Hankison’s sentencing followed a total of three trials since 2022.

He was found not guilty of state-level wanton endangerment charges related to shots fired that entered the apartment of Taylor’s neighbors in March 2022.

Then, in November 2023, a mistrial was declared in a federal trial over whether Hankison violated the civil rights of Taylor, her boyfriend and neighbors after the jury could not come to a decision.

About a year later, in November 2024, a federal jury found Hankison guilty of violating Taylor’s civil rights.

During his sentencing hearing, which lasted more than four hours on July 21, Hankison’s defense and friends described the repeated trials taking a severe toll on the former LMPD detective.

Speaking on behalf of Hankison, friends and former colleagues described him to the judge as a hard-working, veteran police officer whose life had been upended by the repeated trials as well as threats on his life.

Federal charges related to the preparation of the warrant that brought LMPD officers to Taylor’s South End apartment are still pending against former LMPD officers Kyle Meany and Joshua Jaynes.

A third officer, Kelly Goodlett, pleaded guilty in 2022 to charges related to falsifying information in the warrant and attempting to mislead federal investigators. She has not yet been sentenced.

Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who fired a single shot as police breached Taylor’s door in 2020, said it was “a small piece of justice” that Hankison was sentenced to prison.

“I’m grateful for the small piece of justice that we got. It’s definitely not what I was expecting,” he told reporters outside the courthouse. “Brett Hankison told me I was going to go to jail for the rest of my life, so I definitely feel some type of something to see him going, even if it’s a little time.”

The DOJ’s about-face on Hankison runs parallel to the federal agency’s recent abandoning of a police reform consent decree they had, under the Biden administration, entered into with Louisville.

Ahead of Hankison’s sentencing, four individuals, including Taylor’s aunt, Bianca Austin, were arrested outside the federal courthouse while protesting. Protesters were seen blocking cars in the roadway, as well as one who jumped on the hood of a Louisville Water Co. truck.

Later, after Hankison was sentenced, The Courier Journal counted at least 10 police cruisers parked outside the courthouse, although the situation remained calm.

Killian Baarlaer, Lucas Aulbach and Stephanie Kuzydym contributed reporting.

Josh Wood is an investigative reporter who focuses on public safety and government. He can be reached at jwood@courier-journal.com or on X at @JWoodJourno.