Grand jury recordings released in Breonna Taylor case
- by Virginia Carter
- in World Media
- — Oct 7, 2020
The officers used a narcotics warrant to enter Taylor's Louisville apartment on March 13 and shot her after Taylor's boyfriend fired a shot at them.
After knocking multiple times and getting no response, police broke down the door and announced a "search warrant".
According to the grand jury recordings, detective Jonathan Mattingly got shot as soon as he leaned inside the apartment. "They didn't go forward with executing the initial search warrant that they had for Breonna Taylor's apartment".
The officers involved in the raid, though, insisted in interviews with investigators that they had loudly identified themselves as the police before they burst through the door.
It has been reported that of the 12 witnesses who testified, only one said that the police officers announced themselves.
The evidence so far seems to be confusing.
"I'm scared. I don't know what to say", Walker told investigators on the same day his girlfriend was shot and killed in their apartment during a drug raid by Louisville Metro Police. The city also agreed to enact police reforms which include using social workers to provide support on certain police runs and requiring commanders to review and approve search warrants before seeking judicial approval.
In fact, while the warrant was "no knock", testimony from officers and witnesses revealed that law enforcement spent nearly a minute knocking and announcing before using a ram to enter the residence. Wolf is an investigator for the Kentucky Attorney General.
He added. "Once the public listens to the recording, they will see that over the course of two-and-a-half days, our team presented a thorough and complete case to the Grand Jury". As investigators pressed Walker to answer why he believed police might be at Taylor's apartment that night, he responded that he didn't know.
Kenneth Walker, Taylor's boyfriend, claimed that he did not hear authorities announce themselves. While they were yelling and asking who was on the door, they were no reply. Detective Michael Nobles said officers made so much noise that an upstairs neighbor came outside and had to be told to go back inside. Their statements contradict those of Taylor's neighbors and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who was inside with her during the raid. The gun was legally registered. The fatal shot was sacked by Cosgrove, an Federal Bureau of Investigation analysis determined. He looked at Taylor and saw that she was bleeding. But what we find in the recordings is that the witness who corroborated changed his story, first saying he didn't hear police announce and later saying he did.
Grand jury proceedings, in which evidence is presented to a selected body of jurors to decide whether charges should be brought in a case, are normally kept secret, but demand for transparency in the Taylor case prompted calls for release of the tapes. But he doesn't remember which one it was. Hankison fired 10 from an outside patio, but the attorney general said there is no evidence that any of his bullets hit Tayor, who was shot six times.
Though Cameron has said that the jurors were free to pursue additional charges against the officers outside of the indictment of Hankison for wanton endangerment, the Washington Post reports that he actually recommended this single indictment to the grand jury and told them that the other two officers' actions were justified. Walker then allegedly shot him in the leg, later explaining that he thought an intruder was breaking in, according to reports.