One of the Louisville police officers involved in the shooting death of Breonna Taylor says the incident had “nothing to do with race,” while also slamming police leadership and expressing sadness over the 26-year-old’s death.
“This had nothing to do with race,” Louisville Metro Police sergeant Jonathan Mattingly, who was shot during the attempted drug raid that resulted in Taylor’s death on March 13, said in an exclusive interview with ABC News Tuesday. “Nothing at all.”
The interview was the first time Mattingly, 44, has spoken publicly about March 13, when he and two other officers opened fire in a Louisville apartment after being fired upon during an attempt to serve a search warrant.
The shooting sparked both peaceful protests and violent riots against perceived police brutality in Louisville, which quickly spread across the country and were addressed by professional sports leagues and prominent political figures.
Mattingly expressed dismay over Taylor’s death, saying, “she didn’t deserve to die” and that “she didn’t do anything to deserve a death sentence.”
“You want to do the right thing,” Mattingly said. “You want to be the one who is protecting, not up here looking to do any damage to anybody’s family. That’s not anybody’s desire that I’ve worked with.”
Mattingly added: “What we were being was someone who’s defending their lives against gunfire coming at them.”
Mattingly took issue with those who have compared Taylor’s death with other high-profile fatal police shootings across the country, including George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery.
“Because this is not relatable to George Floyd. This is nothing like that,” Mattingly said. “It’s not Ahmaud Arbery. It’s nothing like it. These are two totally different types of incidences. It’s not a race thing like people wanna try to make it to be. It’s not.”
“This is not us going, hunting somebody down,” he added. “This is not kneeling on a neck. It’s nothing like that.”
Mattingly suggested that misinformation — such as reports the police were at the wrong apartment, Taylor not being listed on the search warrant, or that she was asleep in bed during the shooting — has played a role in clouding the public’s view of the shooting. He specifically pushed back against reporting on some of the details of the case, including whether or not the police identified themselves before entering.
“Everybody knows the police knock,” Mattingly said. “When that took place for that long — and they had that much time to think and react and formulate a plan — I don’t know he didn’t hear us. We were talking 20 feet away through a thin metal door.”
“So, my opinion, yes, he heard. But I’m not the end-all, be-all.”
Mattingly said in the interview that “each day that passed” without incorrect information being addressed was “adding fuel to the fire.”
Kenneth Walker, Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend, has stated that the police never identified themselves, and it has been reported that a “no-knock” warrant was being served. However, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron has said, “the warrant was not served as a no-knock warrant.”
Mattingly expressed frustration with Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and said he urged the mayor, unsuccessfully, to release factual information about the case.
“My response to that was, ‘So you’re willing to let the city burn down to not set a precedent for another case?’” Mattingly said. “A lot of the flames that have come up, a lot of this stuff could have been diverted. Now, would people still have a problem with it? Yes. But I think with the truth coming out; then you wouldn’t have as much distrust.”
Mattingly continued his criticism of Fischer: “There’s a reason that the fire wasn’t put out early, that Fischer let it simmer until it got to where it was at, and then it got out of control, and I don’t think he knew how to reel it back in.”
“I don’t appreciate him coming in my hospital room and talking about my son,” Mattingly said. “And then turning around and never addressing the fact that my son’s life was threatened and never being the type of leader he should have been, standing behind what we did.”
It was announced in late September that only one officer, former detective Brett Hankison, would be charged in the shooting death of Taylor. Hankison was charged with three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment for putting Taylor’s neighbors in danger when he fired shots that ended up traveling into their apartment.
An unidentified juror who was on the grand jury that issued those charges said in a statement this week that wanton endangerment was the only charge they were presented with by the state.
“Questions were asked about the additional charges and the grand jury was told there would be none because the prosecutors didn’t feel they could make them stick,” the statement said. “The grand jury didn’t agree that certain actions were justified, nor did it decide the indictment should be the only charges in the Breonna Taylor case.”
“Sometimes the criminal law is inadequate to respond to or address a tragedy,” Attorney General Cameron said in an interview this week. “Frankly, that, in my judgment, is the case here.”
