An internal report commissioned by the Lousiville Police Department found that officers who fired into Breonna Taylor’s death violated department rules by opening fire, even after an officer was hit.
But we all knew this.
Kenneth Walker, the boyfriend of Taylor, shot officer Jonathan Mattingly during the botched raid. Walker claimed the officers did not identify themselves as police before he fired. He is a licensed gun carrier.
“Ms. Taylor’s safety should have been considered prior to Sergeant Mattingly returning fire at the threat, Mr. Walker,” the initial report, first published by The courier Journal, reads.
The report affirms that officers should have retreated rather than wantonly open fire into the home.
“Withdrawing to cover would have created a higher degree of safety for the officers than engaging, because even provided the shots were accurate enough to strike the intended target, it would not mean the threat is immediately disrupted.”
Taylor was shot and killed by Louisville police officers in March during a botched raid on her apartment. Former Lousiville Officer Brett Hankison was indicted by a grand jury in September on three counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree in the shooting that killed Taylor. None of the officers involved in the fatal encounter were charged directly with her death, and Hankison was the only one to face any charges.
Following public backlash, an anonymous juror filed a motion requesting to speak publicly about the decision. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron then admitted that he did not recommend that the jury indict any officers on homicide charges.
Hankison was released bond, which was set at just $15,000.
The investigator rebuked the officers, saying they “took a total of thirty-two shots, when the provided circumstances made it unsafe to take a single shot. This is how the wrong person was shot and killed.”
Lonita Baker, attorney for Taylor’s family, told WHAS-TV. “According to this investigator, it didn’t justify any shots because they couldn’t assess the threat.
“It’s disappointing that Chief Gentry went against the recommendation of the investigators. Only she knows the reason that she did that,” Baker added, referring to former interim Louisville Police Chief Yvette Gentry’s decision not to discipline Mattingly.
