The officers who fatally shot Breonna Taylor should not have been firing into her home, an internal investigation says.
Newly released documents from an internal investigation into Taylor’s death found none of the officers involved in serving the 2020 narcotics warrant that led to the 26-year-old’s death should have fired a weapon, according to two investigators.
“They took a total of thirty-two shots, when the provided circumstances made it unsafe to take a single shot. This is how the wrong person was shot and killed,” Sgt. Andrew Meyer wrote in the report, according to ABC News. Meyer’s preliminary finding said Louisville police Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, who was shot in the leg during the incident, and former officers Myles Cosgrove and Brett Hankison violated department use-of-force policy, adding that Mattingly “should not have taken the shot” because the intended target, Taylor’s boyfriend, wasn’t a clear, isolated mark because he was obscured by a dimly lit hallway.
CHARGES AGAINST BREONNA TAYLOR’S BOYFRIEND DROPPED PERMANENTLY
“Ms. Taylor’s safety should have been considered before [Mattingly] returned fire,” Meyer continued in a report supported by his lieutenant, Jeff Artman.
The findings were contradicted by a memo issued by former interim Louisville Police Chief Yvette Gentry, who overruled Meyer’s recommendation that the trio of officers face disciplinary action because the actions of Kenneth Walker, Taylor’s boyfriend, amounted to “an immediate threat of death or serious injury to an officer.”
“Sergeant Mattingly’s actions therefore need to be examined through the lens of what he reasonably believed at the time he discharged his weapon at an identified threat, at the end of a dimly lit hallway, after being shot himself,” Gentry’s memo said, according to the outlet.
Gentry retired as interim police chief when former Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields filled the position.
On March 13, 2020, Cosgrove, Mattingly, and Hankison entered the home Taylor shared with Walker to serve a narcotics warrant. Once the door was breached, Walker, fearing a home invasion, discharged his weapon, prompting the officers to return fire. Amid the crossfire, Taylor, who was black, was shot dead, with two of the sixteen shots fired by Cosgrove found lodged in her body.
In September, Hankison was indicted by a jury on three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment, with prosecutors claiming he endangered Taylor’s neighbors when he returned fire into a neighboring apartment. Hankison, who was fired from the police department, could face up to five years in prison for each count. The other two officers were not charged, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Kentucky attorney general’s office continue to investigate the matter.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Last September, Walker sued the Louisville Police Department demanding immunity from prosecution for his actions on the night of Taylor’s death. Walker was charged with the attempted murder of a police officer, but Judge Olu Stevens waived the charges permanently on March 8 of this year.
Taylor’s death garnered national attention, and she has become the face of many protests against officers’ use of force, particularly with regard to black people. Her name is frequently invoked along with those of George Floyd, Daunte Wright, and others whom racial justice activists argue were wrongly killed by police officers.
