Grand Jury recording released in Breonna Taylor case
In this Sept. 25, 2020, file photo, University of Georgia students lead a Black Lives Matter protest in downtown in memory of Breonna Taylor in Athens, Ga. Hours of material in the grand jury proceedings for Taylor’s fatal shooting by police have been made public on Friday, Oct. 2. (Joshua L. Jones/Athens Banner-Herald via AP, File)
It has been a week since Jefferson County’s Circuit Court released 15 hours of recorded grand jury proceedings in the case of Breonna Taylor.
The recordings were released 203 days after Taylor’s death in her Louisville, Kentucky apartment on March 13, 2020.
The Night of Taylor’s Death
On the morning of March 13, Louisville Metro Police Department Officers Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison and Myles Cosgrove arrived at Taylor’s apartment.
The three officers visited Taylor’s address to execute a search warrant signed by Circuit Judge Mary Shaw.
According to an eight-page LMPD report authored by Detective Joshua Jaynes, Taylor’s warrant was issued due to a suspected link between Taylor and individuals suspected of selling drugs. A car registered in Taylor’s name had stopped by the homes of a suspected drug house in January.
Jaynes’ LMPD report also states that Jamarcus Glover — a convicted drug dealer and a former boyfriend of Taylor’s — retrieved a package at Taylor’s home on Jan. 16 while under police surveillance.
According to Taylor’s family’s lawyer, Taylor severed ties with Glover shortly before her death.
Taylor was with her then-current boyfriend Kenneth Walker at her residence on the morning of her death.
Walker stated he was in bed with Taylor when the two heard a loud banging at the door, and both Walker and Taylor called out, requesting the identity of whoever was at the door.
Cosgrove stated in the newly-released recording that he and his fellow LMPD officers knocked on Taylor’s door for about two minutes before deciding to force the door open. While knocking, the trio of LMPD officers was interrupted by one of Taylor’s neighbors, who urged the officers to, “Leave that girl alone.”
After the LMPD officers broke Taylor’s door off its hinges, Walker fired a gun once, striking Mattingly in his thigh, hitting the femoral artery.
The LMPD officers responded by firing several times, including the five shots that fatally injured Taylor.
The three officers then retreated to a nearby police car, where Cosgrove instructed the officers to reload.
Cosgrove also retrieved an AR-15 rifle from his vehicle, thinking that a threat could emerge from Taylor’s apartment following the initial shootout.
“[LMPD officers are] yelling like, ‘Come out, come out,’ and I’m on the phone with [Taylor’s mother]. I’m still yelling ‘help’ because she’s over here coughing, and I’m just freaking out,” Walker said of the immediate aftermath of the shooting in a police interview three hours after the incident.
Walker also called 911 as the officers retreated in a recording, which was eventually heard by jurors. During the call, Walker could be heard saying, “I don’t know what’s happening. Someone shot my girlfriend.”
An ambulance that had been stationed near Taylor’s apartment in anticipation of the execution of the warrant had been called off prior to the incident, according to AP News.
A civil lawsuit filed by Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, states the ambulance had been cleared because police “had never actually intended to raid Breonna’s home unless [Glover] was there.”
The Jefferson County coroner stated Taylor likely died within a minute of receiving her wounds and could not have been saved, according to the Courier Journal.
Taylor received no medical attention following the shooting, according to dispatch logs.
In the incident report following the shooting, the LMPD officers involved did not divulge that they had forced Taylor’s door open and listed Taylor’s injuries as “None.”
A property seizure log following a search of Taylor’s apartment after Taylor’s death listed no drugs or money.
Aftermath
Following demonstrations in the wake of Taylor’s death, Louisville banned the use of no-knock warrants on June 11.
Additional changes to LMPD were made after the shooting, such as a requirement that body cameras be worn during the execution of search warrants, and the establishment of a civilian review board for matters of police discipline.
On June 23, LMPD released a termination letter sent to Hankison — the officer who fired 10 rounds into a covered patio door and a window.
Then-LMPD Interim Chief Robert Schroeder accused Hankison of violating official policy on the use of deadly force, claiming that Hankison’s actions were a “shock to the conscience.”
On Sept. 15, it was announced that the city of Louisville had settled in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Taylor’s family — city officials agreed to pay Taylor’s family $12 million.
The agreement did not require the city to acknowledge wrongdoing.
On Sept. 23, a Kentucky grand jury indicted Hankison on three counts of wanton endangerment, citing the threat he posed to Taylor’s neighbors when firing at Walker.
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced the grand jury’s decision to not charge Mattingly, Hankison or Cosgrove with any charges related to Taylor’s death — a decision that was met with immediate backlash from protestors nationwide.
“While there are six possible homicide charges under Kentucky law,” Cameron said, “these charges are not applicable to the facts before us because our investigation showed, and the Grand Jury agreed, that Mattingly and Cosgrove were justified [in firing].”
The recordings were released last Friday after one of the case’s grand jurors filed a court motion requesting that the audio be made public.
“I’m confident that once the public listens to the recordings, they will see that our team presented a thorough case to the Jefferson County Grand Jury,” Cameron said. “Our presentation followed the facts and the evidence, and the Grand Jury was given a complete picture of the events surrounding Ms. Taylor’s death on March 13.”
The newly-released tapes can be found here.
