A federal jury has convicted a former Kentucky police detective of using excessive force on Breonna Taylor during a botched 2020 drug raid that left her dead.

The 12-member jury returned its verdict late in the night after exonerating Brett Hankison earlier in the evening on charges of using excessive force against Taylor’s neighbors.

This is the first conviction of a Louisville police officer involved in the deadly raid.

Some members of the jury were in tears when the verdict was read Friday around 9:30 p.m. They previously told the judge in two separate messages that they were deadlocked on the excessive use of force charge, but chose to continue their deliberations. The jury, made up of six men and six women, deliberated for more than 20 hours over three days.

Hankison fired 10 shots at Taylor’s glass door and windows during the raid, but did not hit anyone. Some shots were fired towards the adjoining apartment of a next door neighbor.

The death of the 26-year-old Black woman, along with the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020, sparked protests against racial injustice across the country.

A separate jury deadlocked on federal charges against Hankison last year, while in 2022 a jury acquitted Hankison of wanton endangerment charges.

The conviction against Hankison carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Hankison, 48, maintained throughout the trial that he was acting to protect his fellow officers after Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, shot them when they broke down Taylor’s door with a battering ram.

That jury had sent a memo to U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings on Thursday asking whether they needed to know whether Taylor was alive at the time Hankison fired.

That was a point of contention during closing arguments, when Hankison’s attorney, Don Malarcik, told the jury that prosecutors had to “prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ms. Taylor was alive” when Hankison fired.

After the jury sent the question, Jennings urged them to continue deliberating.

Walker shot and injured one of the officers. Hankison testified that when Walker fired, he walked away, went around the corner of the apartment and fired at Taylor’s glass door and a window.

Meanwhile, officers at the door returned fire from Walker, striking and killing Taylor, who was in a hallway.

Hankison’s lawyers argued in closing statements Wednesday that Hankison was acting properly “in a very tense and very chaotic environment” that lasted about 12 seconds. They stressed that Hankison’s shots did not hit anyone.

Hankison was one of four officers charged by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2022 with violating Taylor’s civil rights. So far, those accusations have resulted in only one conviction: a plea deal from a former officer who was not present at the raid and who became a cooperating witness in another case.

Malarcik, Hankison’s attorney, spoke at length during closing arguments about the role of Taylor’s boyfriend, who fired the shot that hit the former sergeant. John Mattingly at the door. He said Walker never tried to come to the door or turn on the lights when police knocked, but instead armed himself and hid in the dark.

“Brett Hankison was 12 inches away from being shot by Kenneth Walker,” Malarcik said.

Prosecutors said Hankison acted recklessly, firing 10 shots at doors and a window where he could not see a target.

They said in closing arguments that Hankison “violated one of the most basic rules of deadly force: If they can’t see the person they’re shooting at, they can’t pull the trigger.”

None of the officers who shot Taylor — Mattingly and former detective Myles Cosgrove — have been charged in Taylor’s death. Federal and state prosecutors said those officers were justified in returning fire, since Taylor’s boyfriend shot them first.