Released files detail investigation before fatal Louisville police raid

Taylor, a 26-year-old Louisville emergency medical technician studying to become a nurse, was shot several times after being roused from sleep by police at her door. The warrant was approved as part of a narcotics investigation. No drugs were found at her home.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Police files released Wednesday show contacts between Breonna Taylor and a man she dated previously who was suspected of drug dealing.

Lt. Dale Massey, a member of the Louisville Metro Police Department SWAT team that arrived on the scene, described the execution of the warrant as an “egregious act.”

He told investigators he and other SWAT members felt that after seeing what had occurred and through their interactions with another police officer that “something really bad happened.”

Massey’s comments were included in extensive testimony and other evidence that shed light on the internal Louisville police review of Taylor’s death.

The police files contain conflicting information about when the contacts ended between Taylor and her ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover.

In a recorded jailhouse conversation on the day she died, Glover said he and Taylor had not “been around each other in over two months.”

“I ain’t got nothing going on with Bre no more,” he told a woman whose name was redacted from the report.

Other evidence suggests Taylor and Glover were together in the same vehicle a month before her March 13 death.

On Feb. 13, the evidence shows, a pole camera showed Glover driving a car registered to Taylor. He pulled up in front of a residence and went inside. A few minutes later, Taylor got out of the passenger side of the car, looked around for a few seconds and then got back in the vehicle. Glover soon left the home, got back in the car and drove off.

Taylor, a 26-year-old Louisville emergency medical technician studying to become a nurse, was shot several times after being roused from sleep by police at her door. The warrant was approved as part of a narcotics investigation. No drugs were found at her home.

The case has fueled nationwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism. When police went through the door using a battering ram, Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired once.

Taylor’s name came up in a drug case at least in part because she had posted bail a few times from 2017 to January 2020 for Glover and another defendant, Darreal Forest, in amounts that went as high as $ 5,000, according to police files released Wednesday.

Officer Brett Hankison, who has since been fired, was the only officer indicted by the grand jury, which charged him with wanton endangerment for shooting into another home with people inside. He has pleaded innocent.

Also late Wednesday, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron filed a motion in a local court asking it to dismiss a request by an anonymous grand juror to speak publicly about the panel’s deliberations in the Taylor case.

Cameron issued a statement expressing “concerns with a grand juror seeking to make anonymous and unlimited disclosures about the grand jury proceedings” which he called secretive by firm legal precedent in order to protect the safety of all involved.

Information for this article was contributed by Rebecca Reynolds Yonker, Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, Alanna Durkin Richer and Maryclaire Dale of The Associated Press. Hudspeth Blackburn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.