Grand jury audio details fatal police raid
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Police said they knocked and announced themselves for a minute or more before bursting into Breonna Taylor’s apartment, but her boyfriend said he did not hear officers identify themselves, according to Kentucky grand jury recordings released Friday. In the hail of gunfire that ensued, the 26-year-old Black woman was killed.
The dramatic and sometimes conflicting accounts of the March 13 raid are key to a case that has fueled nationwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism. When police came through the door using a battering ram, Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired once. He acknowledges that he may not have heard police identify themselves because of where he was in the apartment. If he’d heard them, “it changes the whole situation.”
The fear and confusion that played out after midnight inside and outside Taylor’s Louisville home was detailed in 15 hours of
audio recordings made public in a rare release.
The recordings also do not include any discussion of potential criminal action on the part of the officers who shot Taylor because Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron determined beforehand that they had acted in selfdefense.
Grand jury proceedings are typically kept secret, but a court
ruled that they should be made public after the jury’s decision last week angered many in Louisville and around the country and set off renewed protests. One of the jurors also sued to make the proceedings public.
Though police had a “noknock” warrant that would have allowed them to burst in unannounced, they agreed it was better to “give them a chance to answer the door,” said Louisville police Lt. Shawn Hoover. Detective Myles Cosgrove said the officers had been told to “use our maturity as investigators get into this house.”
In a police interview played for the grand jury, Hoover said the officers announced themselves as police and knocked three times. He estimated they waited 45 seconds to a minute before going through the door.
Walker said he heard knocking but that police did not respond to his and Taylor’s repeated requests that whoever was at the door identify themselves. He told police that he grabbed his gun, and they both got up and walked toward the door.
“She’s yelling at the top of her lungs, and I am too at this point. No answer. No response. No nothing,” said Walker.
Police said they used a battering ram to enter the apartment, hitting the door three times before getting inside.
Walker, who has said he thought the police were intruders, fired once, hitting detective Jonathan Mattingly in the leg as soon as he leaned inside the apartment.
Cosgrove came through the door and saw Mattingly on the ground. In his interview, he told investigators that he thought he fired four or fewer shots, but the evidence showed he fired 16 rounds, including the bullet that killed Taylor.
Officer Brett Hankison, who has since been fired, told investigators that he saw flashes from a gun coming from inside the apartment and feared his fellow officers were “sitting ducks.” Hankinson said he began shooting, and when gunfire inside the apartment continued, moved to fire through a window. He fired10 bullets.
Hankinson 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 not guilty.
Walker said he looked at Taylor, who was bleeding. Seeking help he called his mother, 911 and then Taylor’s mother. Walker told a 911 dispatcher: “Somebody kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend.”