By Dylan Lovan and Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, AP
The police officer who fatally shot Breonna Taylor described seeing only “shadowy mass” and said he didn’t recall firing the 16 bullets later matched to his gun. As she lay bleeding, Taylor’s boyfriend called his mother before dialing 911.
And neighbors roused by the gunfire at Taylor’s apartment after midnight on March 13 only added to conflicting testimony about whether police serving a narcotics warrant announced themselves before using a battering ram to break down her door.
Details of the chaos and confusion during the raid that resulted in the 26-year-old black woman’s death were revealed in 15 hours of audio recordings released Friday. They contained testimony and recorded interviews presented last month to the Kentucky grand jury that decided not to charge any Louisville police officers for killing Taylor.
“If you told me I didn’t fire a gun, I would be like, OK,” detective Myles Cosgrove told investigators soon after the shooting.
In fact, investigators determined Cosgrove shot 16 of the 32 bullets police fired into Taylor’s apartment, responding to a single gunshot from her boyfriend when they rammed down her door. Evidence showed one of Cosgrove’s bullets killed Taylor.
Her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, said he thought intruders had burst into Taylor’s home, not police. As she lay bleeding, Walker said he called his mother — then dialed 911, telling an operator: “Somebody kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend.”
The dramatic accounts of the moments before Taylor’s death are key to a case that has fueled nationwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism. Police said they knocked and announced themselves for a minute or more before using a battering ram to get inside. Walker said he did not hear officers identify themselves, perhaps because he was too far from the door.
If he’d heard them, Walker said, “it changes the whole situation because there’s nothing for us to be scared of.”
The recordings mark a rare public look into grand jury proceedings that are typically kept secret. Though they shed light on what happened as police fired 32 shots in the last moments of Taylor’s life, nothing in them appeared to change the fundamental narrative that was previously made public.
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 self-defense. As a result, he did not seek charges against police in her killing.
A court ruled the recordings should be released 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.
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund President Sherrilyn Ifill called the release “a critical first step,” but the group will release its own assessment of how the evidence was presented.
At Jefferson Square Park, where protesters outraged over Taylor’s death have gathered for months, a small, subdued group gathered Friday evening.
On the March night in question, police arrived after midnight at Taylor’s apartment with a narcotics warrant to search the home. She and her boyfriend were in bed. Within minutes, she had been shot five times.
Though police had a “no-knock” 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.
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.
Another officer said they waited as much as two minutes.
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 hit the door three times with a battering ram before getting inside. Detective Michael Nobles said officers made so much noise that an upstairs neighbor came outside.
Walker fired once, hitting detective Jonathan Mattingly in the leg as soon as he leaned inside the apartment.
Mattingly said he fired his gun while falling on his backside.
Cosgrove came through the door and saw Mattingly on the ground. In his interview with investigators, he spoke to the confusion of the confrontation, saying he saw a “distorted shadowy mass, a figure in front of me.”
Officer Brett Hankison, who has since been fired, told investigators that he saw flashes from a gun coming from inside the apartment and began shooting.
Hankison 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.
“What I saw at the time was a figure in a shooting stance, and it looked as if he was holding, he or she was holding, an AR-15 or a long gun, a rifle,” Hankison said.
Walker was, in fact, using a handgun.
While Walker told police he did not hear officers identify themselves, Hoover, the police lieutenant, said he believed Walker and Taylor “ambushed” the officers.
Police interviews with Taylor’s neighbors didn’t clear up the confusion. Two neighbors said they didn’t hear the police knocking. One of them also said he was certain he didn’t hear police identify themselves. Another man gave three differing accounts — in two of them saying he heard officers identify themselves.
I have mixed feelings about this entire event, so I’ll limit my comment to only one thing here:
I understand the concept of confusion and tunnel vision during a high adrenaline gunfight in which you fear for your life, but how does a law enforcement officer who has enough training to be selected for a “no knock” crash team not realize he mag dumped his gun? The noise, the time it takes to pull the trigger 16 times, the difference of weight from the absence of ammo afterwards…doesn’t seem plausible to me.
Confusion over the quantity of shots fired is understandable. To say he didn’t remember firing any of them is suspect.
Having watched hundreds of officer involved shooting videos. On very few occasions have I seen an officer fire multiple rounds and know how many they shot. Many times it involved a complete mag dump. It’s easy to say training should alleviate this issue. Everyone even those trained have a plan for every contingency and yet they still have failures. I’ve witnessed those failures on numerous occasions during training scenarios where the intensity of the situation came no where near an actual live fire event. When the bullets start to fly in your direction those plans often have little relevance to one’s survival. I make no excuses here, but simply point out few plans survive first contact with a hostile force. If society gave as much attention to all the citizens killed on a daily basis by criminals as they have on this and like events. Maybe something could be done to curtail those murders. Alas Josef Stalin said it best: “A Single death is a tragedy, a Million deaths are a statistic”. The one death used to promote a Cause or Ideology bears greater importance than the Many who died without Remembrance.
“On very few occasions have I seen an officer fire multiple rounds and know how many they shot.”
Oh, come on. Clint Eastwood never had any problem… 😉
What makes you think so? He sure SAID he did! Are you calling Callahan a LIAR?
Mike Tyson noted that “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Similarly, everyone in a gun fight has a plan until the lead starts flying.
Still, don’t understand in a warrant for drugs why they have to break the door in the middle of the night. Block the sewer to prevent drug flushing. Take down the person on the street, then search the home. Surveillance can determine when the home is unoccupied to avoid disasters such as this.
There can certainly be some Police Reform, but the major need for reform is Defective Citizen Reform, Accomplish Defective Citizen Reform, and the need for Police Reform essentially evaporates.
This multiplied by BILLIONS! What this ultimately shows is just how inept law enforcement can be. The no-knock was the only other plan?
“…but how does a law enforcement officer who has enough training to be selected for a “no knock” crash team not realize he mag dumped his gun?
Easy –
Under oath, saying “I can’t remember” or “I can’t recall” is the safest thing you can say.
Saying yes or no can get your ass “in a heap ‘o trouble, boy!”.
It’s a chickenshit answer, but likely the one that can save your neck…
“Under oath, saying “I can’t remember” or “I can’t recall” is the safest thing you can say.”
Bingo! The Comey Defense. Good training, seems to work for the big guys.
There’s a reason cops get to take 24 or so hours before they talk to anyone. They get a union lawyer, who tells them to not remember anything. Result: you get a couple of weeks of admin leave and the lady is still dead.
“but how does a law enforcement officer who has enough training to be selected for a “no knock” crash team…”
I didn’t get the impression that these guys are high-speed, low-drag. And the vast, vast majority of cops are not. Sure, you have some teams that actually do the sort of training schedule that you would want (like every 3rd day) but most cops just don’t do enough live-fire or simunitions stuff to actually inoculate against the stress of an actual gunfight. And it makes sense. Unlike military specops, 99% of the stuff cops do doesn’t require that level of training.
I did some good simunitions training for active shooter stuff awhile ago. Performed very well for a few of the scenarios. Then something very similar to this situation happened and I done fucked up, ‘shot’ the wrong person. Vapor-locked and went into partial auto-pilot for the rest of that encounter (and then made a bunch of other mistakes immediately because of it). Good thing it was simunitions. Someone else didn’t remember shooting his gun during the encounter. He had no reason to lie and we all had cameras on. He literally did not register what happened in his cabeza when shit got crazy.
What’s the answer? One is to avoid these situations altogether and not break down doors over that level of evidence or crime. Another is to double-down on announcing. Maybe have a police car activate its sirens and even PA. Or we could try and actually train a select team of cops to be good enough to react better. But that’s a non-starter in the age of ‘defund the police.’
These weren’t high speed guys. There were 5 addresses being raided, and these detectives were recruited and given the low risk location. It was so low risk that they weren’t supposed to do “no knock,” even though the warrant allowed it. Since they weren’t wearing body cams and witnesses have conflicting stories about announcing, we’ll never know what happened, other than an unarmed, unthreatening woman was shot.
I have heard all of that until I am sick of it. When is somebody going to mention whether the cops performing the entry were IN UNIFORM or not. Immediately after the event I heard they were undercover officers involved in drug investigations, which means to me that they dressed like filthy thugs stoned out of their minds, deliberately imitating the kind of people who, if they break down my door, will be instantly engaged, no matter about knocking or announcing, killers are allowed to lie! I have not again heard, either way. I am not insinuating any crime, here, just possible stupidity, if that was their job they should have gone home and gotten into uniform before breaking down a door in the middle of the night.
They need to have Kyle Rittenhouse come in and train their team. He knows how to react to a stressful situation without a full mag dump and firing in random directions.
I’ve heard Kyle only had the one mag.
Not having a reload is a huge incentive to not magdump.
Is that why California Millennial cops are now carrying extended mags in their duty guns?
To think about the fact that you only have one mag requires forethought, something I doubt is a big part of a typical mag-dumper’s thinking.
You may be right, though. I’ve sometimes thought we could do worse than putting revolvers back in most officers’ hands. “You’ve got six rounds, buddy. Don’t waste them.”
This is really an indictment of the whole system that puts evidence gathering over human life. How about you wait for him to step out and then grab him.
At about 9 AM!
No Can Do…Someone beating on the door saying they are the police is no time to open the door to find out if they are who they say they are. I do not want anyone with a badge to think they can strong arm my rights anywhere or at any time. Try beating on their door and saying your are the police and see if they run to open the door. Not Happening.
All of this went down over suspicion of drugs not murder, rape, kidnapping, etc. As for the actions of the knee jerk drama queen rioters? Two wrongs don’t make a right.
There is one way to make sure the police armed with warrant do pound on your door. Don’t engage in criminal activity.
Don’t not do
More than a few Swatting victims may want a word bit generally good advice that will work with the other 99.99% of issues.
Been some wrong address victims would like to speak, also, if they were still alive.
From time to time the police will break down the door at the wrong address. Or they get the address right but the suspects they are interested in have moved, and the home has new occupants.
Forced entry raids should be banned except for hostage situations. In all other cases including drugs the risk of injury or death to everyone involved is too high to justify.
There have been many many many documented incidences of police serving warrants on incorrect addresses just this year. Google it if you don’t believe me, and pray you aren’t on the receiving end of a case of mistaken warrant serving. Because you or me would probably have the same response as Walker: Arm yourself, and start shooting if they breach the door.
Kicking doors down is almost ALWAYS wrong. No-knock warrants have to end. The man or woman on the other side of the door has every right to shoot you dead when you crash through their doors. The only time kicking doors down would involve hostage situations, or credible bomb threats, or similar nature.
Response to bomb threats should involve mostly snipers.
Cool story bro…since neither of the occupants did, you premise seems to dispute itself.
yeah, except for that whole swatting thing, and then when the moron police get the wrong address, or they fabricate evidence to get you
Except for that dead body that was found in her rental car that she said she loaned to her boyfriend…
NO KNOCK WARRANTS ARE UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
End of the discussion!
Yeah, the JBTs breaking down your door are gonna say “Whoops! We’re sorry! Please excuse our interruption. We’ll be leaving, now…”
False. The Constitution only requires that police have a warrant to enter your property without your permission. It does not require that they knock first.
But this is a red herring since everyone agrees that the police knocked and some residents heard them announce.
Your “everyone agrees” seems to be contradicted by the fact that not everyone agrees. It’s more accurate to say almost everyone said it didn’t happen, except for the 3 cops and an anonymous “other person”, 13 say no, 3.X say yes, that doesn’t seem anything like everyone by the definition.
” The Constitution only requires that police have a warrant to enter your property without your permission. It does not require that they knock first ”
Amendment IV: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated…”
It all comes down to how we define what is reasonable and what is unreasonable. To me, executing a properly issued warrant is reasonable. Crashing down a door and executing an unannounced invasion is not reasonable, and it violates the right to be secure in your house.
Seems like a reasonable question for SCOTUS. Has it ever been addressed?
Bingo. And, thank you. DAs, cops, and judges who use no-knocks need to be knocked in the head a few times to help them understand the constitution. No-knock might be justified in hostage situations, credible bomb threats, stuff of that nature. Not for routine arrests, suspicion of drugs, blah blah blah.
There is nothing unconstitutional about them. The Constitution requires due process. That’s all.
It’s amazing how many people write stuff in all caps but probably have never actually read the BOR completely.
As much as I hate to say it you’re not wrong. There are plenty of issues with no knock raids, but constitutionality isn’t one
Kicking down a door absent an active shooter or hostage is not reasonable. Any warrant not involving one of those two should only be served via “Knock and wait”.
End the useless and FAILED War on Drugs and we get rid of problems like this.
Nope, does not work that way. Legalizing or ignoring the drug problem still has people being chemically enslaved and evil fuckers making billions in profit. These drug cartels look upon Americans from children on up as a ranch, and every American they can addict to their product is part of their herd.
Anyway, there is no “War on Drugs” in the USA. When we start sending SEAL teams into the mansions of Mexican and South American cartel kingpins to kill those evil fuckers, then we will have a War on Drugs.
“Legalizing or ignoring the drug problem still has people being chemically enslaved and evil fuckers making billions in profit.”
Fentanyl is dirt-cheap to synthesize in mass quantities. The government can distribute it for free, completely cutting off the cartels at the knees.
For those that have no interest in getting that “Monkey off their Back”, that’s the simplest solution :
Listen to Aldo Nova (who hasn’t aged very well) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs6iMer68co
Wow… Thanks for that I haven’t listened to Aldo Nova in a long time. Time be break out some old vinyl and Jam.
Aldo Nova co-wrote a bunch of Celine Dion songs!?!? What…
Apparently the youtube progs don’t like links from a gun site. Link is closed.
Which evil fuckers do you want to get paid? The Mexican cartels, or the pharma/tax authorities.
Maybe the difference is the victims of the gang wars vs the victims of something like the opioid epidemic. The OD’s are probably the same, the gang bangers are out of a job with one at least.
Yes, and campaign for that, but until that happens don’t violate the law.
Can I convert one of my rifles to full auto just because the NFA is unconstitutional? Or make a hardware store silencer? What would you all say if I did that and got killed in ATF raid because of it?
************************************************************************************
Enuf, ending the war on drugs would end the cartels. Regular companies would make drugs in factories with standard ingredients and processes. No one would have to wonder what was in their stash. Each dose would have a specific amount of active ingredient, just like all pharmaceuticals do now. That would eliminate accidental overdose. Injectables would be packaged in single use syringes eliminating the spread of disease by sharing needles. The price would come down sufficiently that addicts could afford their habit, cheap food, and a cheap apartment on the pay from a dead end job like flipping burgers. That would eliminate a lot of homelessness and crime. The war on some drugs (not tobacco, not alcohol, and more and more not marijuana) has cost us freedom, money, and lives. Adults should be free to make their own choices.
Freedom is the answer to every problem. Control only causes more problems.
Faux Libertarians used put a condition on
The right to put any substance in their bodies, that is, “as long as it doesn’t hurt anybody else.” I always thought that was BS and lo and behold once we observed that drug users have a large negative effect on third parties that condition got dropped. Now it’s just “I have a right” period.
Yeah, except most of that “negative effect” is due to the war on drugs. If no one is breaking down doors and shooting people, negative effects diminish dramatically.
As in all things…The promise of Utopia is filled with Good Intentions and Yet the Road to Hell is paved with Good Intentions.
Ending drugs won’t end cartels. They’re already warring over avocados. Like the mafia at the end of Prohibition, they will be weakened, but they’ll find other sources of income. Other countries that don’t legalize will continue to fuel the drug wars.
And yet when was the last time there was a major shootout between former American bootleggers? The absolute height of the power of American organized crime was during Prohibition. And while it’s true that the cartels will find other ways to make money, the sheer volume of revenue from drug money simply can’t be made up elsewhere. The top 3 most valuable illicit global industries are, in order, drugs, weapons, sex. And the drug trade is worth more than the other two combined. The cartels are already balls deep in human trafficking and arms dealing, and any other illicit revenue stream beneath those two is relative pennies. Cut off or severely weaken their single largest source of revenue and there’s simply no way they can make up even a fraction of that elsewhere
Let those “other countries” worry about their own drug wars, once we have removed ourselves and our children and our taxes.
Marijuana is legal in CA, yet seven bodies were found a few weeks ago at an illegal weed farm.
Making things legal will not stop price competition when profit margins are astronomical.
Still illegally federally.
Although raw milk is legal in California, Obama sent feds in to raid and destroy product.
And all because no one recognized the need for outlawing Obama.
The black market for weed still exists primarily because states like CA and CO tax it at such an absurdly high rate that it creates an incentive for people to go around the law. In other words, even with full legalization, extreme taxation has the same basic effect (though admittedly to a lesser extent) as prohibition. If there’s any type of high demand item or service, irrespective of what it is, where going through illicit channels carries a strong advantage over the alternative, a black market is created. Tax weed at the same sales tax rate as anything else and you remove most of the incentive to not go through legal channels
Correct. Sort of like sending your cops out to kill people for selling loose (and probably untaxed) cigarettes after putting a $10 a pack tax on them. For our own good, of course.
Harden your castle!
This whole episode has had a tragic outcome and the source is the so-called legality of no-knock warrants. I get the usefulness of them for catching dirtbags red-handed with the goods. BUT – you cannot allow such an intrusion if it has the potential to be abused to violate an an innocent person. The constitutional right trumps security. And that’s where our laws have gone waaaaaay askew and police departments are all too accommodating to militarize themselves toward a bad future of a police state. This and many other cases are wake-up calls for complete legislative reforms based first on protecting our constitutional rights (presumption of innocence) and second, rapid and decisive law enforcement in a graduated response to fit the situation. I am friends with a few law enforcement people and I know they have good intentions and want the best for their community. But a complete system has to work all the way from initial contact, to possible arrest, to incarceration to fit the crime or victim restitution. Folks , that is NOT an easy thing to create – but our best people should be put to this task. And part of the problem are terms within the police union contracts that preclude identifying, punishing, or firing poor or bad performance personnel. No contract should have that power and that should be revoked from the contracts.
The no knock entry is a strawman since everybody acknowledges that they knocked.
If the knocking is simply going to be a formality a second or two before the they start breaking the door down with a battering ram and subsequently burst through the door screaming and shooting, what difference does it make?
If I inadvertently create a situation than involves gunfire, people wounded and dying, I don’t get to claim self defense if I shoot and kill someone. Why do the people who are supposed to be professionals get that privilege? If the police go on a no knock raid or any raid, get the wrong house, the wrong people and there are deaths and injury, they need to be held responsible. It’s that simple. It isn’t like working in retail where you simply apologize and issue a refund.
Was the door forced? Doesn’t matter how many times they knocked, if no one answers it means no one inside heard the knock. It was NIGHT TIME. The occupants were SLEEPING. CRASH goes the door in the middle of the night – tell me that you don’t take defensive measures.
Cops need to arrive during daylight hours, knock politely, and WAIT FOR THE DOOR TO BE OPENED!
Few exceptions to that rule would include a hostage situation, or a credible bomb threat, maybe a kidnapping or human trafiking.
Oh, you think someone might flush evidence down the toilet? Tough. I don’t care because the system is abused.
From what I remember, they were spying on Breonna to make sure she went to bed before they raided the home. Which would imply they served the warrant as a no knock. Why else would they wait until the TV turned off?
The timing was based on hitting 5 locations simultaneously. It’s possible that they were staking it out ahead of time, but I’m not aware of it.
“The no knock entry is a strawman since everybody acknowledges that they knocked.”
Total BS, one person who changed their story for the second police interview said he heard the knock.
The prosecutor had petitioned for a no knock warrant, the judge granted a no knock warrant, there’s no cop in the world who would voluntarily knock with a no knock warrant in hand.
You, like the law-enforcement perpetrators in this incident, are lying.
Bullshit to ALL of you, without the war on drugs there would have been no warrant and no drug task force to serve it. THAT is the source of these problems.
An epic fustercluck cost Breonna Taylor her life. The cops had a search warrant to search for drugs. And where were these mythical drugs that the cops were looking for? Nowhere. No drugs in the home. The whole damn thing was a scam.
Mr. Ralph continues to be stuck on stupid now that he has been awakened to the fact that the warrant was executed as a no knock. That Walker heard them knock and that he fired first. So much for wrong house, shot her bed.
Breonna Taylor was Demarcus Glover’s baglady and girl Friday who had been under investigation for four years prior to execution of the warrants. This was not a spur of the moment action.
F**k the lack of an editor.
Should read “not executed ad a no knock.”
Taylor was complicit in the drug dealing. She allowed both boyfriends to use her apartment to receive and distribute drugs.
…according to the guys who executed a warrant to seize those drugs, and found only a dead woman’s body. Forgive me if I don’t accept the drugs as established facts…
Haven’t seen any reports of evidence supporting that.
You are way behind the evidence.
https://www.wdrb.com/in-depth/louisville-postal-inspector-no-packages-of-interest-at-slain-emt-breonna-taylor-s-home/article_f25bbc06-96e4-11ea-9371-97b341bd2866.html
Even if they had video of Breona dealing drugs to pre-schoolers and her furniture was constructed of bricks of cocaine, it wouldn’t matter. She was unarmed and unthreatening at the time of the raid. She didn’t display ability, opportunity, or intent to justify using lethal force against her.
Based on what evidence? Oh right, the words of the ones who created this whole clusterfuck. Ok that’s cool, there’s definitely no possible chance they’re lying
I wouldn’t really call breaking the door down with a battering ram “knocking on the door”‘
Hey, tdiinva, I’m typing this very slowly because I know you can’t read fast.
It doesn’t matter to me whether the cops announced or not. What does matter is that the dope they claimed was in the apartment wasn’t. There was nothing. Well, nothing except a dead woman.
Maybe they should have come to your home if they were looking for some dope. They would have found a big one.
Are you suggesting that any warrant that doesn’t result in finding the objects of the warrant is an invalid warrant? Real life simply doesn’t work that way.
If you need to be 100% sure that drugs are there before you serve a search warrant, why bother with a search warrant?
Like, I get the argument that it shouldn’t be done at all for drugs. Fine, there are merits and detriments to that argument. But don’t set up an impossible standard for all warrants. If you trace kiddie prn to some creep’s house and he won’t open the door, do you just not arrest him or search for his devices? Ever? You can’t be SURE he has them and can’t convict otherwise. What about the suspect in a violent crime? You’ve got a witness that heard a shot and saw him drag a bloody carpet with a body-shaped object into the house… can’t serve the warrant because you’re not 100% sure it’s still there?
@Hannibal
You really need to know what you are seizing. You can’t throw out vague accusations as fact. You have to be specific, thus you must know for a fact. I can’t say I think you have a machine gun in your house without supporting evidence to give me probable cause for a search warrant, hence the oath and affirmation.
I can’t believe the Democrats are right on this and the Republicans are all wrong. Who would have guessed the Democrats would become the party closest to following the constitution?
The cops left after the shooting, did not return to search for 14 minutes, plenty of time to flush some serious amounts of drugs.
She was cleared and sued the government for that incident. They were supposed to clear her from her ex boyfriend’s crimes yet they still went to her house. The warrant appears to be illegally acquired through intentional lies.
I am starting to think the cops were there to steal drug money. I heard they were not at the briefing before the raids and they were about 11 miles from the raiding SWAT team. They were wearing regular clothes and had body cameras, but the body cameras weren’t on (so they say). Cosgrove ran to his vehicle and got an AR-15, he wasn’t supposed to be on scene still. Hankison claimed he saw a criminal with an AR-15. The AG said there was no body cam footage because no one had cameras.
Now Mattingly is trying to sue the family for a lot of that settlement money and Cosgrove setup a Gofundme for his retirement fund.
Hankison was alleged to have planted drugs on people before. I believe there is a case still open about that.
“I am starting to think the cops were there to steal drug money. I heard they were not at the briefing before the raids”
Bingo.
That’s why there is no body cam footage, they didn’t want video of them taking the cash they thought was there.
Or, maybe the cash WAS there, and right about now they’re wishing they’d logged some of it as evidence instead of stealing all of it.
This incident seems very similar to the Jose Guerena shooting in Arizona.
Reports are Walker was using Taylor as a shield. It would make sense—if he was the point man in the hallway(where she died), then HE should have been shot also.
The cops’ testimony and the physical evidence shows they were standing side by side. You can see where Breonna’s body was if you want, that evidence is out there. She was also shot in the arms and feet, which would most likely mean she fell on the first few shots and was mag dumped on as she lay dying from a chest wound. There is no way her boyfriend could have used her as a shield, that is disinfo to make the boyfriend look bad since there isn’t any criminal record to make him look bad.
I don’t trust what the cops say. I won’t pretend to know for sure what happened here, I don’t think anybody can, except that drug dealing was involved and someone is dead.
I will say it is NOT okay to justify the murder or involuntary/negligible manslaughter of any supposed criminal even if they are proven to be a drug dealer. why? because for one, cops are not executioners, and for two, big lies and corruption are involved, both of which are serious crimes and intolerable coming from the police.
Why the no knock warrant anyway?
Was he a clear and present danger?
Why didn’t they just wait and grab them when they left the apartment and then serve the warrant?
Whatever judge issued the warrant didn’t give a shit about the other people that lived within a gunshot of the apartment.
They were serving a warrant,weapons hot right?
Anything can happen.
Sounds like a waco moment.
I heard the judge didn’t spend much time reading the warrants. She signed them quickly. Now she is saying they lied to her to obtain the warrant. She handed out no knocks.
Militarized police need no knocks to be able to use all their fancy stuff. Without no knocks they can’t blow open doors, dress like the military, drive around in MRAPs and use machine guns. If they were to be high IQ strategists that stuff wouldn’t be necessary, they would just ambush people outside when they least can resist and expect it, then they would go inside the empty house.
You can’t have a Waco if you arrest the man at the grocery store.
Well said.
In fact, at Waco, the Feds had the opportunity to apprehend the subject of the warrant downtown (dunno if it was a grocery store), but were intent on an entry into church grounds using an arrest warrant as a ticket in, so they passed. And around 100, including women and children, died. And no one was prosecuted or even fired.
Who was the he? Not anyone who had been at that location in months.
Where was the he? In police custody at the time of serving the warrant.
Overall a terrible job by the legal system. I don’t know if that means charges of homicide were justified. They’ve paid out $12M without much time elapsing, these things normally take years, not in this case.
When the cops enter a house during these raids they use tactics scientifically designed to deliberately confuse people and purposely interrupt their OODA loop. We know this. Is this a good or a bad idea? If you have purposely tried to manipulate or disrupt a persons thought process, you are responsible for the outcome. Not them.
If I knock on a door, and no one answers AND I break down the door with a battering ram to get in, it is either:
a) a no-knock warrant being served, or
b) a home invasion.
Did they knock or not? Irrelevant once they used the battering ram. It’s NO KNOCK. Otherwise, they could have come back again and tried later, or waited until they left.
No reason for breaking down a door if someone’s life is not on the line. PERIOD.
They were given a no knock warrant by the judge. I think they were given 5 in total. They were told to knock on Breonna’s because she was a non threat and supposed to be alone. The cops claim they knocked and the boyfriend said he heard the knocks, but the boyfriend said the people knocking wouldn’t answer when they asked who was at the door. I believe the cops did an interview where they said they knocked and didn’t announce because they wanted Breonna to come to the door, when that didn’t work they started to announce and break down the door. 12 residents said they did not hear the announcement of police, they did hear the pounding and shooting.
the AG made it sound like the police didn’t have a no knock. If people paid attention to his word usage you wouldn’t think that. He also didn’t mention the warrant appears to be illegally acquired through lies and was vague enough to questionable sole in that regard.
An interview with the SWAT commander makes it sound like the 3 detectives were not supposed to be serving the warrants the SWAT were doing. For some reason these 3 guys ended up about 10 miles from the SWAT team serving the warrant themselves on a house they believed had a large amount of money and maybe drugs.
The AG also failed to mention the officer being charged with wanton endangerment was issued two handguns by the depertment. One of those handguns was a 9mm. I thought I saw a crime scene photo of a 1911 style carry handgun, which could be a 9mm, capacity for such a gun is 8-10 rounds. The AG was questioned about that but wasn’t happy to hear it, he eventually said the bullet would have to be magical to hit the officer in the leg as the officer (who was issued a .40 and a 9mm) fired into the windows, walls and glass doors.
The first black AG (Republican) isn’t be all that honest and upfront before the elections. He is lying through omission.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsgSBQjQHCo&t=3m41s
By the way, there was some bullets that went past the door striking the dinning table’s chair near the height of a man’s leg. The wound of the officer was to the left leg higher up and was said to be a pass through.
They claim some bullets even bounced upwards and hit the ceiling. I really like to know how bullet holes ended up in the ceiling, that’s a new one.
“I really like to know how bullet holes ended up in the ceiling, that’s a new one.”
Chief, *please*.
Muzzle rise during a panic mag dump can put rounds in the ceiling…
Only a 9 year old girl, using a full auto, would put rounds into the ceiling while shooting at Breonna. The cops had semi auto handguns. How do you put rounds into the ceiling in the living room near the front door when Breonna is at the end of the hall? Have you ever shot a helicopter when you fired off some rounds at the range?
If anything, the bullets looked like they might have bounced off some furniture.
I find it odd that wanton endangerment wasn’t filed for those bullets because there was about 5 black people inside the apartment during the shooting. Yet the 3 white people on the other side of the wall got their justice, they are suing as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsZ5vJXJB6o
Chief, don’t be an idiot. Every, and I mean EVERY range I’ve been in during my life, probably 20 or more, has had the shit shot out of the ceiling. I don’t know how, but thinking it is somehow unusual tells me you don’t have much experience with indoor ranges. With targets which are returning fire, I’d guess that would be even more common.
The slogan should be DLM instead of BLM. BLM made it into a racethis thing. Most all people whom get shooted by cops are either drunk or on drugs DLM encompasses all, no race cars involved. Drunks Lives Matter
Possum, I was once a member of D.A.M.M. –
Drunks Against Mad Mothers… 🙂
AA is for quiters
The point of law enforcement is to protect the people. If an act of “law enforcement” is more likely to kill people than protect people, then what’s the point? This would be fine time to assess the data and make the necessary changes to prioritize saving lives. The problem with that is, stupid politicians and political activists are using this moment to endanger more lives, create more division, and institute racist policies and indoctrination. They’re doing that, not to help the people, but to help themselves.
” The point of law enforcement is to protect people.” ? No the point of law enforcement is to enforce the law.
I was gonna day almost exactly this but I saw you beat me to it. I’m not sure how homeboy didn’t get that, it’s literally right there in the name. And I’ll even take it a step further and say that the point of law enforcement is to enforce the law, and the law, by definition, is whatever the government says it is
OOoo! Word games! How about the purpose of the damn LAW is supposedly to protect people? After which comes, why not forget the whole thing if this is the best we can do?
It’s gettin to be tough to be a felon these days…….Even more to be a cop!
This article is not being honest.
The press conference to announce wanton endangerment for an officer was very different than the story told in court. The AG used the grand jury as a scapegoat to cover his ass when he decided on his own to declare the shooting of Breonna as self defense. The AG did not present any charges for Breonna’s case, he only admitted that only after the judge ordered the release of the recordings.
The AG’s story told wasn’t exactly the same outside the court room.
Why convene a grand jury if the AG already decided not to press any charges for the death of Breonna? Why no charges considering the warrant appears to be illegally attained? Wouldn’t felony murder apply in this case? How can a cop empty his gun into Breonna and reload it but not notice he even shot 1 time?
This case is worth going to court. 12 million was hush money.
If the cops didn’t do anything wrong, why are the taxpayers on the hook for 12 million?
It appears the government gave out an illegal warrant. The judge claim she was lied to. The post master said he never told the cops about drugs or packages. What was written on the warrant in regards to things to be seized and what was said in court about why they were at her house don’t exactly match up.
I think the money was to get the family to walk away happy getting the largest settlement for a black person and a little fluff of “reform” to go with it. I believe there is a recording with one of the family’s lawyers saying they already knew about the bodycam footage the AG claimed didn’t exist, but they didn’t want to put out there because he didn’t want to get removed from the case, as in he didn’t want to lose all that money he was going to get in the settlement.
The lawyers for the family were there for the money grab.
The question was rhetorical…
You can do something that’s not criminal and still be civilly liable. City employees shot an unarmed and unthreatening woman. The grand jury said it was a mistake, not a crime.
If my well-fed golden retriever, with no history of viciousness or fight training, breaks down the fence and eats the neighbor’s baby, I probably wouldn’t be found guilty, but I’d still get my ass sued off.
Ok. I ready. Tell us how you empty a magazine, by accident!
Like this: When I was a kid 50-odd years ago I got a .357 magnum and shot the piss out of it. No training available or taken. Most rounds fired were single action, from one position or another, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. I knew exactly how many rounds I had fired every time for thousands of times. And I carefully observed where each round went. Since then there has been a revolution, everybody has to have a semi and mine holds more BBs than yours. “Training” often consists (at least in part) of finding the trigger reset and training yourself to never fire one when 20 are available Br-r-r-r-r-rt. And who cares where they land, just shoot more and quicker, here, did we practice speed reloading? A single .357 JHP is all that’s needed 99.9% of the time, yet the focus now is carrying 100 rounds and being able to fire them all within 15 seconds. Who cares where they go? When that has been the training for 20 years or so, the result that you don’t even remember firing should not surprise.
You know, the only thing I am against on this case is the no knock raid portion. That said, you are probably a criminal who deserves it if you get one, but it’s been pointed out here already that it happens to innocents too. Now throw in “red flags” and you get straight up tyranny. As for the whole make these people martyrs movement – nah bruh. Not a fan. There is absolutely nothing here that involves race or worth burning cities down nationwide for. I get it though, war is hell, and our side will probably end up destroying democratic strongholds in the future, but certainly not over race baiting bullshit like the left is. So many missed opportunities to make these movements about freedom. They have achieved the exact opposite and push oppression and segregation. Always have. If there were 10,000 people in front of the city halls screaming “no more no knock raids, red flag laws, and make government smaller” this whole nation would rally behind it. Instead, we got this BLM and ANTIFA bullshit the democrats are using the same way they used the KKK and the confederacy, pushing for more control and more slavery. Sickening how easy these people are manipulated.
The two people inside were completely innocent. No crimes were committed. Nothing the cops claim was there to allow them to raid the house was there. It was made up by the cops to get the warrant on a house they believe had a lot of drug money.
The protester were making it about no knock raids. They got them banned in the city through an ordinance.
You see what you want to see. You can’t relate and don’t want to listen.
bitch please. The protests were and ARE the furthest thing from what you are claiming they are. They are about RACE. The end. You don’t think I can relate. Bitch I grew up in VA and was GD half my youth before I joined the military. I saw and did things you could never imagine. I was the white boy and I proved myself “worthy”. You don’t fucken know me, you phony.
I suggest we leave the Democratic strongholds alone, and go after the Democrat strongholds, there is nothing Democratic about them.
Honestly, here’s the single biggest problem I see with this whole massive clusterfuck. The absolute most charitable way to spin this in favor of the cops would be to say that they carried out their lawful duties, took fire, shot back, and killed a third party by mistake. Even if that’s all that happened (and for the sake of argument and the point I’m trying to make here let’s pretend that none of the many surrounding issues are present), that’s STILL something where a private citizen would be facing hard time if they exercised their right to self defense in a legitimate situation and unintentionally killed someone other than their attacker. But cops? Nah, apparently that’s totes cool homeboy. Getting REAL tired of these goddamn double standards. We’re not supposed to be a class based society, “liberty and justice for *ALL*” and all that. Laws that are only applied to certain people aren’t laws, they’re arbitrary rules wielded by tyrants to punish people for political reasons. Observe also how Kyle Rittenhouse has been charged with first degree murder and yet the individual who, without provocation, ran up on him with a handgun and threatened his life is free and has been charged with nothing. Last time I checked assault with a deadly weapon is a felony and defending yourself *against* an unprovoked assault with a deadly weapon is not, yet here we are
Who do you believe, Ben Crump or the cops?
That’s like asking who’s more credible, an internet Nigerian “prince” or itinerant driveway resurfacers.
BOTH have a long and storied history of deceit.
I don’t get to instigate an event in which gunfire occurs, shoot, maim and kill innocent people and then get to claim self defense. Why should the professionals be held to a lower standard? Because of a badge?
When we got rid of insane asylums, all the low IQ, psychopathic murderers needed places to go.
Seems like they all found police work.
We had 3 cops who fired at a target they could not identify. That should be enough to put all 3 on Eddyville death row.
Kenneth Walker, the boy friend,
Her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, said he thought intruders had burst into Taylor’s home, not police. As she lay bleeding, Walker said he called his mother — then dialed 911, telling an operator: “Somebody kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend.”
Kenneth Walker, the boyfriend, didn’t identify his target either. And, had he not fired first it is possible that Ms Taylor would not have perished. The police officers were not there for a friendly visit and the round Mr Walker fired hit one of the officers.
Personally, I think this is a failure of the system more so than the cops who executed the warrant. Forced entry in the middle of the night is extreme and just asking for something to go wrong. Very little difference between no-knock and knock and announce in the middle of the night. It might be needed in some cases, but not a routine drug investigation. A daytime warrant would be just as effective and much lower risk.
If only there was technology that would have exonerated these state sponsored thugs who murdered a woman in her bed . . . . . some sort of . . . . . recording device that could be attached somewhere on the corpus of the shooter . . . . . and activated.
Yeah, great idea!
We could call it:
‘Collecting And Monitoring Emergency Response Actions’
Or just C.A.M.E.R.A.
What do you think?
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