Breonna Taylor was 26 when she was killed in her Louisville apartment in the predawn hours of March 13, 2020. Plainclothes officers from the Louisville Metro Police Department arrived to execute a search warrant tied to a narcotics investigation into a man Taylor had dated. Officers used a battering ram to force entry; Kenneth Walker, Taylor’s boyfriend, fired one shot, striking an officer in the leg. In reply, officers Jonathan Mattingly, Myles Cosgrove, and Brett Hankison fired a total of 32 rounds. Taylor was hit multiple times in the hallway and died at the scene. No drugs were found in the apartment.

Accounts differ over whether officers announced themselves before entry; police said they did, while Walker and neighbors said they heard no announcement. The shooting sparked nationwide protests and led Louisville to ban no-knock warrants. The LMPD fired Hankison in June 2020 and later terminated Cosgrove. State charges of wanton endangerment against Hankison related to bullets entering a neighboring apartment were brought but he was acquitted in March 2022. Federal authorities also pursued cases: some officers were charged over the warrant affidavit and Hankison faced federal civil rights charges, with a federal jury later convicting him.