A former police officer in the US state of Kentucky has been found guilty of violating the civil rights of Breonna Taylor, a black woman killed in her own home during a botched raid four years ago.

Brett Hankison, 47, faces life in prison after being convicted of using excessive force against the 26-year-old emergency technician.

But the jury also found him not guilty of another charge of violating the civil rights of one of Taylor’s neighbors. This was the third time Hankison had been tried in the case.

The verdict marks the first time an officer has been found guilty in the deadly March 13, 2020, raid that made Taylor’s name a rallying cry during that year’s racial justice unrest.

Taylor’s family members broke down in tears after Friday’s verdict, according to the Louisville Courier Journal.

Prosecutors wanted Hankison immediately taken into custody, but their request was denied by the judge, the local newspaper reports.

The jury of five white men, one black man and six white women began its deliberations Wednesday.

The indictment charged Hankison with depriving Taylor of the right to be free from unreasonable seizures and depriving his neighbors of the right to be free from deprivation of liberty without due process of law.

He fired 10 shots into his apartment in order, he said, to protect his fellow officers when Taylor’s boyfriend opened fire when the officers broke down the door.

According to the Courier Journal, Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, said after the verdict that she was starting to feel “defeated” as jury deliberations continued, but was “glad” the trial was over .

“It took 1,694 days. It was long, it was hard, it was — I don’t know if I have words (other than) ‘Thank God,'” she said.

Hankison testified for two days at the retrial, telling jurors he was “trying to stay alive, trying to keep my partners alive.”

He was the first of four officers charged in the case to appear before a jury.

Another former officer, Kelly Goodlett, pleaded guilty to falsifying the search warrant for Taylor’s home.

Federal charges against the other two officers were dismissed by a judge earlier this year. The U.S. Department of Justice recently indicted both men on new charges.

Taylor was killed after plainclothes officers executed a “no-knock” search warrant at her home. They broke into her apartment early in the morning while she and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were asleep.

Authorities believed Taylor’s former boyfriend was using her home to hide narcotics.

Mr Walker fired a single shot when they knocked down the door, hitting an officer, Sgt John Mattingly, in the leg. Mr Walker said the officers did not identify themselves as police and he believed they were intruders.

The three officers returned fire, firing 32 bullets into the apartment.

Another officer fired the shot that killed Taylor, but prosecutors said his use of deadly force was justified because Walker opened fire first.

None of Hankison’s bullets hit anyone, but they did enter a nearby property, where a pregnant woman, a five-year-old child and a man were sleeping.

A subsequent police report contained errors, including stating that Taylor’s injuries were “none” and saying that no force was used to gain entry, although a battering ram was used.

Hankison was fired from the Louisville Metro Police Department in June 2020.

His previous federal trial last year ended in a mistrial when the jury told the judge it could not reach a unanimous verdict.

He was previously tried by a Kentucky state jury in March 2022 and acquitted of three counts of wanton endangerment.

Both Taylor and Walker’s family received settlements from the city following the incident.

A series of police reforms were also introduced in Louisville.

Hankison is due to be sentenced on March 12 next year.