A Kentucky State Police ballistics report does not support state Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s claim that Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, shot a police officer the night she was killed.
According to the report, “due to limited markings of comparative value,” the 9mm bullet that hit and exited Mattingly was neither “identified nor eliminated as having been fired” from Walker’s gun.
One of the attorneys for Walker, Steve Romines, told ABC News, “the Kentucky State Police’s own ballistics report could not determine that Kenny’s shot is who hit Officer [Jonathan] Mattingly.”
Last week, a grand jury declined to indict Louisville Metro Police Sgt. Mattingly, Officer Myles Cosgrove and former police officer Brett Hankison in the death of Taylor.
They cited Walker’s firing at a cop as the reason.
Hankison was indicted on three felony counts of wanton endangerment for firing shots into Taylor’s apartment that penetrated a wall of a white family’s residence next door to Taylor’s apartment.
Cosgrove and Mattingly each fired multiple times into Taylor’s darkened apartment but were found justified in their use of deadly force because Walker fired the first shot at them when they forced open Taylor’s front door to serve a search warrant.
Daniel Cameron, the attorney general, disputed the idea, suggested by Walker’s civil attorney, that Mattingly was struck in his femoral artery by friendly fire.
“Justice is not often easy and does not fit the mold of public opinion. And it does not conform to shifting standards,” Cameron said. “I know that not everyone will be satisfied with the charges we’ve reported today.”
