Breonna Taylor: Video appears to shows former officer visiting scene in violation of police policy

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Newly released police body camera footage from the aftermath of Breonna Taylor’s killing appears to show one of the officers – who now faces criminal charges for firing his gun into her apartment building – visiting the scene of the crime, in violation of police policy.

None of the three officers who fired into the 26-year-old black woman’s Louisville apartment wore body cameras on 12 March, but video obtained by VICE News appears to show now-former officer Brett Hankison entering the apartment and asking other officers about shell casings at the scene.

Mr Hankison approaches the front door and asks whether someone is dead inside the apartment. He returns minutes later, steps inside, and asks whether the other officers found a rifle and if the shell casings on the ground are “theirs.”

"Is that theirs?" an officer asks in the video.

Another officer replies: “No, it's ours, looks like."

"But I'd back out until they get [the Public Integrity Unit] in here," an officer tells him.

Officers must remain “isolated from all non-essential individuals for the remainder of the initial investigation" in which they’re involved, according to police policy.

Mr Hankison was charged with three counts of “wanton endangerment” on 23 September, more than six months after Ms Taylor’s death, and on charges unrelated to Ms Taylor’s killing.

Two other officers – Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove – also fired their weapons that night, including the shots that killed Ms Taylor. Neither have been charged with a crime.

Among seven officers at the raid, two left the scene with Officer Mattingly to a nearby hospital, while four other officers, including Hankison and Cosgrove, remained on the scene with their guns drawn, video obtained by VICE News shows.

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron claimed that the officers were "justified in their return of deadly fire" because Ms Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker – who has argued that police did not announce themselves before they broke into the apartment with a “no-knock” warrant – had fired first.

Believing someone broke into the home, Mr Walker fired a single shot, allegedly striking Mr Mattingly in the leg.

Attorney General Camerson’s justification “bars” the office from pursuing criminal charges against them, he said.

Mr Hankinson was fired three months after her death for "wantonly and blindly" firing 10 rounds into the building, according to then-interim Louisville Police Chief Robert Schroeder.

It’s unclear whether the grand jury has reviewed the newly released body camera footage or that Mr Walker’s shot definitively struck Mr Mattingly.

A 9mm bullet that struck officer Mattingly was“neither identified nor eliminated as having been fired” by Mr Walker, according to the Kentucky State Police ballistics report.

Footage obtained by VICE News, collected from 45 different cameras, also appears to corroborate statements made by Mr Walker following the raid on 13 March.

He told investigators that officers threatened to send a dog after him and that he would go to prison for the rest of his life.

Videos shows Mr Walker walking backwards towards the officers with his hands in the air, as an officer commands him to “walk straight back or I will send this dog.”

Mr Walker is then handcuffed, crying out, “What did I do?”

Mr Hankison responds: “You’re going to prison, that’s what’s going on. For the rest of your f****** life.”