Breonna Taylor

In March, three plainclothes officers of the Louisville Police Department, driving and unmarked car, reportedly burst into an apartment where Breonna Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker were sleeping. Believing it to be a home invasion, Walker, who has a concealed carry permit, opened fire, wounding one of the three officers.

The cops shot back, hitting Taylor eight times and killing her. Walker survived and was charged with attempted murder of the police officers…non-uniformed men who Walker says burst in on them in the middle of the night.

The shooting has caused a huge outcry in Louisville. Chief of Police Steve Conrad made the sudden decision to announce his retirement yesterday. The LMPD claimed the officers knocked on the door and, in response, were met with gunfire from inside the home. Conrad has been heavily criticized for providing inaccurate data to the city council on the number of no-knock raids the LMPD conducts.

Today, the FBI announced that it would begin its own investigation into the shooting.

Now, local prosecutors have announced that the attempted murder charges against Walker are being dropped.

From the Louisville Courier Journal:

Commonwealth’s Attorney Tom Wine announced at a news conference Friday that his office will move to dismiss the case against Kenneth Walker, who was charged after he fired one shot out of Taylor’s apartment, striking a police officer.

Walker’s attorney has said he thought they were being robbed and he did not know the intruders were police officers serving a search warrant.

Wine acknowledged that a grand jury should have seen more information before deciding to indict Walker.

“I believe that additional investigation is necessary,” Wine said.

To be clear, the charge is being dropped for now. If more investigation into what exactly happened that night reveals wrongdoing on the part of Walker, Wine may indict him again.

The Courier Journal reported Thursday that a Louisville police sergeant who obtained the indictment of Walker didn’t inform the grand jury that Walker had told police he didn’t known it was police who were trying to get into the apartment.

Walker’s attorney, Rob Eggert, moved for a dismissal of the charges on the grounds that the commonwealth “woefully misled” the grand jury to get the indictment.

A recording of Sgt. Amanda Seelye’s grand jury testimony obtained by The Courier Journal also shows she didn’t tell the grand jurors that Taylor was shot and killed in police officers’ return fire.

As the AP reports . . .

Wine played some of Walker’s interview with police during the news conference Friday. Walker told police on the audio recording that he could hear knocking on the night of the shooting but did not hear police announce themselves.

Walker said he was “scared to death” so he grabbed his gun and when the door was knocked down, he fired a shot. He said his intention was to fire a warning shot downward toward the ground. The bullet hit a police detective.

Wine said he also was seeking to dispel some “false information” that has been reported about the case. Wine said he believes that the police knocked and identified themselves despite receiving approval for a “no-knock” warrant. Those warrants allow officers to enter a home without first announcing their presence.

Taylor’s family has sued the city over the shooting. This isn’t over by a longshot.

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98 COMMENTS

      • This happens way to often because the police in the US get away with abusing no knock warrants. Only in exigent circumstances should they be used, such as a hostage situation. This is a clear violation of the 4th Amendment and a dangerous one for all involved.

  2. Justice won’t be satisfied until all three cops swing for negligent homicide.

    • Honest question from someone who doesn’t know barely anything about this case: Why do you say that? Do you think all negligent homicides deserve the death penalty?

      • So I’ve read that there is no bodycam footage.
        If that is true, in this day and age there is ONLY ONE REASON why there is no bodycam footage and that is because they don’t want anybody seeing the illegal things that they do.

        No bodycam footage means that I consider cops GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT.

        If I’m on a jury and there is no bodycam footage, the suspect is walking and the cop is guilty.

        • I second this. There is absolutely no excuse for every single body cam to magically malfunction, or be turned off before the raid. Turning on cameras should be one of the fundamental SOP / pre-raid checks. I never left the wire without brass checking my chamber before patrols, putting on my gloves and eye protection. Other guys had their personally owned little go-pro cameras and you better know they had those turned on.

          (I was dumb and brought a home camera that was like a decade old.)

          If there is no video, its because the police were entirely negligent, or they deliberately destroyed evidence. Guilty until proven innocent, that IS how they treat we the people after all.

        • HO HO HO that’s funny. if they got the treatment civilians get, they would all be in jail, cars impounded and it costs 2000 dollars to get them back (each), guns confiscated, punched a few times while getting cuffed, mugshots with black eyes and broken noses, fingerprinted, tattoo inventory, cussed at and told by the cops they are getting life in prison.

          think any of that happened?

        • I agree with arc on this. I know a number of people who had GoPros specifically because “I’m not getting charged with war crimes when some POS family members lie”. Although, to be fair, some probably did simply hope to come back with epic battle footage too.

          Cops have said for a long time that “the camera doesn’t lie” which most certainly raises the question of why they don’t want to wear and use cameras appropriately.

      • Those are blanket statements applied to a nuanced and varied question. What was the level of incompetence demonstrated by the police? How blatant was the police cover up?…. I mean, we all agree that it was grossly negligent and there was a coverup, right?…. I’d say the margin between prison and hanging is razor thin for those police officers involved.

      • Anyone else who kicks in someone’s door and kills an innocent person would get hit with the book.

        Should be no different here.

        Maybe they didn’t mean to kill Ms. Taylor, but they DID, so maybe there should be some consequences?

        • Maybe there should also be some sort of consequences for the judges who issue no knock warrants and innocent people get slaughtered.

          At a minimum, the judge should be removed from office, though civil and even criminal liability should perhaps be considered.

        • ahhh yes it sure would be nice for judges to have skin in the game.
          However reality invades and a solution like that would mean lawyers and pols doing their job.
          Therefore not a chance.

          Once again and forever…. killing all the lawyers is still the best process.

        • Cknarf, no one has claimed the residents, including the deceased, were innocent of whatever the warrant was supposed to be about, the article did not even get to that. The *serving* of the warrant was an unmitigated clusterfuck.

        • I’m gonna get a lot of flack for this, but just from what y’all have said, I need a lot more evidence before becoming sure.

          If they just kicked down the door, then yes. I think a no-knock raid is an extremely poor choice for both cops and civilians. But the cops are claiming they announced themselves. If that’s true, I’m not sure what else they could have done. Lack of body cam footage is definitely suspicious, though.

          Also, I personally believe police have the right to break into homes to serve warrants. Pretty sure that’s covered by the Constitution and commonsense. That this can be abused is obvious, but power to do good almost always necessitates power to do harm.

          Insults aren’t super compelling, but if y’all have more evidence or something I’d be happy to reevaluate.

        • “But the cops are claiming they announced themselves.”

          Well, the bodycam video sure would clear that up now, wouldn’t it?

          Cops have been known to “announce” at a volume no one inside would hear, because “preserving surprise” is in the interest of “officer safety”.

          No bodycam video makes this stink, full stop. The chief rat just jumped off the sinking ship…

        • @Geoff Yes sir, I already said that “Lack of body cam footage is definitely suspicious.” I fully stand behind that.

          That said, convicting anyone of murder over a lack of evidence is an argument from ignorance and unjust. Obstructing justice or tampering with evidence, sure, but on the strength of a lack of evidence alone we can’t prove they’re murderers.

        • “But the cops are claiming they announced themselves.”

          They had a no knock warrant, why would they announce themselves?

          I’m calling BS.

      • If you broke into a person’s home and killed an occupant of that home it would be considered capital murder. There should be no exceptions for the police. In fact since they are representatives of the state they should be held to an even higher standard. These officers need to be imprisoned for the rest of their lives if they are not executed. If an example is not made out of them police officers around the country will continue with their same poor behavior and decision making.

        • OmnivorousBeorn what would you if somebody was breaking into your house in the middle of the night and you have a gun laying right by you are you going to just let whoever it comes in and do whatever to your love ones I know I sure as hell am not and I will not be just one round going there way I will empty my gun and my spare mag as well if I can, in other words, I believe in standing my ground especially in my home

        • @Truckman Yup. For about a million reasons, I support people’s right to self defense. I’m not trying to undermine people’s right to defend themselves against unknown invaders. I oppose no-knock raids.

          Just because I don’t immediately act like I know the cops are guilty doesn’t mean I’m not inclined to think they are. It also doesn’t mean my support of the right to self-defense is shaky.

      • You know that phrase that gets tossed around a lot, “play stupid games, win stupid prizes”? These “mistaken” no-knock tragedies fit that phrase better than anything. Whenever an idiot shoots the wrong person, they should absolutely “swing” for it, especially when it’s their job to shoot the “right” people. JBT idiots need to be made an example of.

        If “law enforcement officials” randomly burst into your home at 3am in full battle gear with an APC, murder your family, and then say “oops, we had the wrong house” (and you’re lucky to get them to admit that), would you just lie down and take it?

        • “The police raid was supposed to have happened at a “trap house” more than 10 miles from Taylor’s apartment.”
          some have.

        • ““The police raid was supposed to have happened at a “trap house” more than 10 miles from Taylor’s apartment.”

          This is *why* I have said if their needs to be a no-knock, have *ONE* agency do them, like US Marshalls, who can do them according to universal training standards, including making sure the warrants are at the location actually on the warrant…

      • Heat of the moment actions can be argued. But it was not heat of the moment when somebody decided it was a good idea to send plainclothes officers in an unmarked car to go banging on doors with guns in the middle of the night. What did you THINK would be the result? Is there such a thing as criminal stupidity? And the cops-WTF is the matter with them that they did not refuse until uniformed officers in a no-shit police car arrived? Sounds a lot like terminal arrogance! The least that should happen is to drop whatever the charges are and reach an agreement with the family of the deceased, the cops were WRONG, period full stop. And I’m fine with pursuing farther actions that may be justified by what happened after they arrived.

        • Sending plainclothes cops in unmarked vehicles to serve a no knock raid is a tragic level of dumb . . .

      • Not all, but when they’re done under color of law with the full force of the government behind it, crimes should be treated as several steps more serious as a matter of propriety in protection of the general interest of society.

    • No one swings for negligent homicide. Negligent means accidental.
      If that were the case, every vehicle accident that resulted in one or more deaths would result in someone being hanged. I don’t think we want to go back to Hammurabi’s Code.

    • @LarryInTX: The warrant being served was for her x boyfriend who no longer lived there. These 3 cops got bad intel, a bad warrant and now want to charge an innocent man for defending himself and girlfriend.

      As others have stated anything Police do should be on body cam especially warrants. Similar thing happened in Houston they killed 2 citizens in cold blood and then tried to cover it up. Pretty sure this happens a lot and a lot more than you think. But casualties of our ever increasing Police State.

      • End the no-knock warrants. If the intel is so bad, in so many cases, why continue? I’m sure the neighbors knew the ex-boyfriend was gone. Why not ask the neighborhood kids? If the cops get off, then every “oops” shooting should be forgiven.

  3. This is a good start. The next step is when the three police officers are doing the perp-walk.

    As much as I support the police, the culture of no accountability needs to be addressed with suitable criminal charges.

    • The three gestapo officers should be locked up and put in the general population. There they would get to deal with the the inmates that want to give them a ‘no-knock’ raid.

    • My interpretation of the law (and the DA and grand jury agree with my interpretation) is that cops can kill anybody they like, in their house, without warning. ESPECIALLY if they are black and might have been criminals. IT’S THE LAW!!! Ask pwrSerge!! /sarc/

    • Unless the shot person was a communist, I can’t tell what Serge’s view is. Did he say so? No. We have a mind reader!

  5. Seriously, our law enforcement has gone 3rd world banana republic.
    These early AM raids have got to be f’n stopped.
    It is an affront to the constitution.
    Even worse is the prioritization of law enforcement priorities by their potential confiscation amounts.
    The war on drugs has turned law enforcement into a bunch of thugs.
    Makes me barf.

    • DoesKY2,

      Absolutely. Worse, when the police close ranks to hide crimes and mistakes, it conveys that public safety, law enforcement ethics, and professionalism, are of no concern.

      Is it tough to be a cop? Absolutely. But when your buddies in blue behave irresponsibly, dangerously, you need to stand for the integrity of your profession, even if it means fellow officers will be convicted of a crime. Otherwise, law enforcement becomes just another criminal gang.

      Disclaimer: I was never a cop, just a part-time ‘Special’. My Dad was the police commissioner in our small NJ township.

      • Agreed!

        “when the police close ranks”…

        Which leads to the next questions (using a slightly paraphrased part of your comment: “it conveys that public safety, ethics, and professionalism, are of no concern.)

        How about when…

        “when the priests close ranks” (ministers, elders, rabbis, imams, pastors, clergy, etc)
        “when the doctors close ranks”
        “when the lawyers close ranks”
        “when the scientists close ranks”
        “when the politicians close ranks”
        “when the school administrators close ranks”

        …and the list goes on.

        Law enforcement is not unique in having a sub-culture of secrecy.

        All of these professions should be held accountable for their criminal actions…whether committed by an individual member or by a cabal of members. Whether committed by flawed policy, by design, with intent and malice…or even by accident.

        • Old Guy in Montana,

          Re: your list of professions that close ranks: yes!!! You speak truth!!!

          For the record, I am a former Catholic priest. Well, technically still a priest: just not allowed to practice. I walked out and they slammed the door behind me. It was a good day. 😉

          • I’m glad that your career change is working out for you.

            Would love to sit down with you someday over pizza and a Cold Smoke brew and hear “the rest of the story”.

            Later,
            OGiM

        • I was outdoors most of today in the Florida heat. Rank is pretty accurate description of me when I came home… 🙂

          • @Geoff

            I wondered what that was…thanks for the heads-up, I’ll cancel the call to the Honey Truck about pumping my septic on Monday.

        • Absolutely right! There was a ob-gyn doctor who was doing unnecessary surgery on young women, 1980’s. He lost his hospital privileges for a bit. The women lost their uterus, thinking he saved their life. The other doctors could have stopped him by reporting him to the state. Yes they do protect their own. Tho, I think it’s better today. Not so much a club/fraternity as it was.

        • Law Enforcement is unique in the fact that are authorized the use of force on behalf of the state. They need to be held to a higher standard. Not given an endless supply of get out of jail free cards.

        • Hunter, you are absolutely correct. Police officers are granted tremendous power, not only lethal force but the ability to detain and incarcerate citizens.

          They should be held to a higher standard and their policies and actions examined by a civilian oversight authority.

        • When authoritans closes rank and defend their own guilty members, the common people are left with only one defense, jury nullification. At the beginning of a trial it is never explained to jurys for good reason. It is the common people closing ranks.

    • Look what the war on drugs did to Mexico. It used to be a nice place. Some of my family wanted to move there to live in a huge house, now they don’t because it’s way too dangerous, they really loved Mexico.

      • As long as we can shoot drug addicts dead when they rob, rape, steal, murder. I say make all drugs legal. DWI arrest them. Intoxicated in public arrest them.

        • I have been arguing for years with Republicans when it comes to shooting over property. Most Americans do not want it to be legal to shoot over any property.

          I want my life, liberty and property respected and I want to be able to defend them. There should be legal guidelines how to defend your property with deadly force. I don’t think you should be able to simply blast someone right off the bat, but I do believe you shouldn’t be restricted from defending your property. The law shouldn’t force you to stand by as you are victimized and allow the criminals to do as the please. If you allow the law to restrict your human right to defend your stuff, criminals will thrive by exploiting the system.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wepmrX9n1uw

        • Yeah this ready SOP in most states regardless of drug use or not. Are you fine with people not on drugs doing these things? Your comment makes no sense as usual.

        • “I want my life, liberty and property respected and I want to be able to defend them.”

          Texas, after dark, in the rural counties, I have heard, allows just for that…

  6. Hey look, actual justice is being done.

    Take a long look at this case folks. What happened to Taylor and Walker is what fringe anti-gunners want for all gun owners who won’t comply with any further infringements.

    • There are RARE circumstances where they cannot be avoided, such as a drug house where there is someone who is always there, and you cannot wait and arrest an alleged perp outside or raid the house when it is empty. In those cases, evidence will likely be destroyed. But they are used in many cases simply “in the interest of officer safety.”

      • They should never be used for drug cases. It is better that some drugs get flushed than innocent people get murdered. No knock warrants also put police at risk of being shot as suspected home invaders.

      • Why can’t you wait?
        My list is limited to the case that you believe a kidnap victim is inside about to be murdered.
        That’s about it and I’d estimate that would be approx ZERO per year for the entire USA.

      • Set up a perimeter, cell phone back/bullhorn contact the occupants.

        They don’t like to set up a perimeter because it takes more officers to set up an airtight perimeter than what is required to just kick down the door.

      • A much better option would be to end the war on drugs. But you Republicans just love your never ending wars.

        • Speak for yourself.

          I’m hard right, and want most drugs de-criminalized…

      • Only in cases where immediate threat of harm to others, should “no knock” be authorized. If a hostage is in danger, or explosives/nbc material may be used/released, or an imminent terrorist attack, no knock might be necessary. If the amount of “drugs” is so small it might be flushed, it is not worth a loss of life.

  8. In the original report, it said the person the LEO’s were looking for was already in custody. Quite a mess!

  9. Dirty cops, end of discussion. Too bad he only wounded one of those criminal POS cops, cause all three of them deserve to eat 8 hollow points. Eye for an eye.

  10. Anyone planning to go to the 2A rally at the PA capitol Jun 8?

    Here is the letter PA Rep Darryl Metcalf sent to Gov. Wolf indicating the rally will take place despite the Gov’s specific ban on events at the Capitol:

    https://gunowners.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Metcalfe-Letter.jpg?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=PA%20%20Metcalfe%20Thank%20You%20%205212020&utm_content=PA%20%20Metcalfe%20Thank%20You%20%205212020+CID_1ab518525c1b9ec72f9ec76c4ed049d1&utm_source=Email&utm_term=letter

  11. He hit the ejection button when people shouted corruption. He sees what’s going on down in Georgia, he doesn’t want any of that kind of heat.

  12. Let’s not judge the cops too harshly in this case. I mean, they only killed one woman, right? They didn’t kill the boyfriend, and they never killed any family pets.

    I’d say that they now have carte blanche to go an kill one black male, one poodle, and as many innocent bystanders as possible. Otherwise, what’s the point in being a cop?

  13. The black, white or whatever color city council members are just as responsible as the cops for setting the agenda for arresting people.

  14. End qualified immunity.

    Police should have a personal incentive to do things right.

  15. The “person” the police were looking for was ALREADY IN CUSTODY THE DAY BEFORE THE RAID!! How much more inept and at fault does the Louisville Police have to be until something gets done. Next item, no knock raids should be illegal.

    • Idk about this case in particular, but I had the experience of serving a search/arrest warrant for an armed robber, who was later found to be in custody 2 counties away. He had participated in a robbery in our city, which we investigated, identified him, obtained warrants, checked local jail rosters, and served our warrant. Turns out he was arrested the day before 2 counties away commiting another robbery. He was arrested at about 2300 hours, and we checked the system last at 0300 the next morning. Nothing is perfect.

  16. “The LMPD claimed the officers knocked on the door and, in response, were met with gunfire from inside the home…”

    A useless sentiment as there’s no weight behind it. The question is, what was in the police report and official work documents produced by each officer after the incident? Who claimed that there was gunfire from inside the house upon knocking on the door? Is there physical or video evidence to support that?

    I still don’t know if they were ‘plainclothes’ or not but I am extremely suspicious of this entire situation as reported. It’s not usual for (only) three cops to be involved in this kind of situation. It sounds kinda like some other cases that have been investigated where a small anti-drug or gun group goes rogue and basically operates like something out of “The Shield” or “Training Day”. I wonder if these guys have knocked down some other doors and it just never made it into any reports because drug dealers rarely file complaints when they get robbed of their drugs.

    I hope this is just a lack of public information that is making me suspicious.

  17. Maybe they should wait until the residents are leaving so they can see they aren’t armed and capable of flushing drugs down the toilet.

    But no, it’s more fun to boot the door, kill the dog, trash the place and pretend it’s Bagdad.

  18. I’m calling it now, Walker will be dead soon for the crime of not letting the cops kill him the first time around. They’re dropping the case, but they need to do more investigating? Mmhmm. I’m sure they’ll find a little more evidence soon, enough for them to get another no-knock warrant. And this time they’ll go in with plates and leave with empty mags. Then, with no living witnesses and no body cam footage, they’ll move for summary dismissal of the civil suit. This is their shoddy way of trying to sweep all this under the rug.

  19. I live in Louisville. So for all of you who have an opinion.
    The cops were at the wrong house. The SWAT team is not required to have body cams.
    This was an F’up bust and the occupants had every right to defend themselves. The cops did not find any drugs or weapons. Oh, we did a no knock break-in to the wrong house and one of our officers got shot. What a surprise. And an EMT got killed for no reason.

    • “The cops were at the wrong house. The SWAT team is not required to have body cams.”

      What a surprise.

      The citizens of that city (fuck that, nation-wide) must *demand* all police wear bodycams that are turned on when the officer is responding to a call.

      I have no problem with them turning them off for lunch or bathroom breaks, but all other times, they must be turned on…

  21. The cops are running out of things to do, the crime rate has dropped dramatically because everybody has a gun throughout the United States and they are having to make shit up as they , there’s no use in having 30 cops in a small town anymore, all they are traffic cops.

  24. I know I’m way late to the party, and as far as I know, no one has brought up this point. Kenneth Walker’s having a concealed carry permit should not have a damn thing to do with any part of this story. Kentucky has been a constitutional carry state since 06/27/19. Before that, open carry, home carry, and vehicle carry were all permitless and still are.

    Walker’s use of a firearm to protect himself and Breonna Taylor has absolutely nothing to do with him having a concealed carry permit. To me the narrative has been that if Walker did not have a concealed carry permit he would still be in jail. That is just wrong.

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