Officers in deadly Breonna Taylor raid thought she was alone [View all]

[Eugene]

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