Louisville Officer Shot During Breonna Taylor Raid Shares Story

Breonna Taylor became a symbol of the Black Lives Matter movement when she was shot and killed by Louisville police. But the narrative surrounding her death has done a 180.

Years later, those who demonized police were proven wrong when a judge ruled that Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, was the person whose actions led to her death, not the Louisville Police Department.

But that didn’t stop the officers who were on the scene from being smeared by celebrities, politicians, the media and activists.

This is why Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly tells “Fearless”’s Jason Whitlock — who calls the outrage following Taylor’s death a “racial hoax” — what really happened on Friday, March 13, 2020.

That night, Mattingly was serving an arrest warrant in a drug investigation, and was initially hailed as a hero for his actions.

“Something happened, and I’m not sure when it happened, but it was pretty quick,” Mattingly tells Whitlock. After the shooting, Mattingly underwent surgery to repair his femoral artery, which had been severed when he was shot by Walker.

“That night we went, and they said knock and announce, because Jamarcus Glover, he’s not at this location,” Mattingly explained. “So I said, ‘That’s fine.’ They said, basically, she’s a heavy black woman, give her extra time to come to the door.”

“After about a minute, no response, my lieutenant says, ‘Go ahead and punch the door.’ The breaker punches the door, and when it opens, I’m standing to the left of it. He’s standing to the right of it,” Mattingly continued, noting that the situation inside was strange.

“Normally people give up, hide, or run. There are never two people lurking in a hallway, and by the time my mind registers this and I get my gun to them, I see the tip of Kenneth Walker’s silver pistol, and it’s too late.”

“Boom, shots fired, I feel the impact on my leg, I shoot back four times and go behind the door. He dives into a room as soon as he shoots, leaving Breonna in the hallway. She tries to follow him into the room because her feet crossed the threshold of the door and then she fell back,” he explains.

“So she ran into the line of fire, chasing this man who had left her in the hallway,” he adds.

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