Editorials & Other Articles

Eugene

(61,914 posts) Thu Jul 9, 2020, 06:30 PM Jul 2020

Officers in deadly Breonna Taylor raid thought she was alone

Source: Associated Press

Officers in deadly Breonna Taylor raid thought she was alone

July 9, 2020

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Louisville police officers who fatally shot Breonna Taylor while serving a warrant were told she should be home alone because the main target of the narcotics investigation was elsewhere, according to an interview with one of the detectives who served the warrant.

Taylor was shot eight times after officers used a battering ram to knock down her door and fired into the apartment after midnight March 13. One officer was shot by Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who said he thought an intruder was breaking into the home.

The slaying set off weeks of protests, policy changes and a call for the officers who shot Taylor to be criminally charged. Global protests on behalf of Taylor, George Floyd in Minnesota and others have been part of national reckoning over racism and police brutality.

Sgt. Johnathan Mattingly, who was shot in the leg by Walker, spoke to Louisville Police internal investigators about two weeks after the raid. NBC News obtained the interview with Mattingly and another with Walker and released them Thursday. Several key parts of the interviews were played for the public in May when an attempted murder charge against Walker was dropped.

Mattingly said ahead of the raid officers were told Taylor’s ground floor apartment was a “soft target” and Taylor “should be there alone, because they knew where their target was and I guess they thought that he was her only boyfriend or only acquaintance.” Police were conducting a wide-ranging drug investigation that night.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/a819916f3b18b2253b157d1300f84713

7 replies

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Highlight:

Officers in deadly Breonna Taylor raid thought she was alone (Original Post) Eugene Jul 2020 OP

All round tragic cock up...may the police get their act together. Karadeniz Jul 2020 #1

They thought she was alone? What, does that give license... brush Jul 2020 #2

K&R SharonClark Jul 2020 #3

The 'target' had already been arrested... stillcool Jul 2020 #4

If they knew the target was not there, marie999 Jul 2020 #5

If they knew the apt. was empty, Igel Jul 2020 #7

WTF? Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin Jul 2020 #6

Karadeniz

(22,543 posts)

1. All round tragic cock up...may the police get their act together.

Reply to Eugene (Original post)

Thu Jul 9, 2020, 06:36 PM

Jul 2020

brush

(53,801 posts)

2. They thought she was alone? What, does that give license...

Reply to Eugene (Original post)

Thu Jul 9, 2020, 06:37 PM

Jul 2020

to pump gunfire into her apartment after battering down her door unannounced?

There is no way there's any explanation for what they did. And I understand one killer cop didn't enter but stayed outside and shot in through the bedroom window.

Murderers all.

SharonClark

(10,014 posts)

3. K&R

Reply to brush (Reply #2)

Thu Jul 9, 2020, 06:43 PM

Jul 2020

stillcool

(32,626 posts)

4. The 'target' had already been arrested...

Reply to Eugene (Original post)

Thu Jul 9, 2020, 07:14 PM

Jul 2020

Breonna Taylor was shooting practice

Police were conducting a wide-ranging drug investigation that night.

That target was an alleged drug dealer named Jamarcus Glover, who was arrested on trafficking charges the same night 10 miles (16 kilometers) away on a separate warrant. Taylor had a previous relationship with Glover.

Earlier this week, lawyers for Taylor’s mother filed an amended civil lawsuit that alleged police initially called off the warrant search at Taylor’s apartment but then went ahead with it to attempt to locate other drug suspects that had no connection to Taylor. Glover had already been apprehended, the lawsuit said.
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“I’m trying to protect her, she didn’t have a gun,” Walker said of Taylor. Walker said he fired one shot toward the ground just as the door was being bashed in. That bullet hit Mattingly in the left thigh. Mattingly then fired about six shots, he said, and then scooted himself out of the apartment.

Mattingly and another Louisville officer, Myles Cosgrove, were placed on administrative leave after the shooting. Another officer who was at the scene, Brett Hankison, has been fired for violating use of force procedures, for “blindly” firing 10 shots into the home, according to police.
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Mattingly said Hankison “was a little worked up” that night, and pointed his gun at a neighbor who was yelling at the officers.