Breonna Taylor, 26, was shot and killed by Louisville police in March
Cops investigating Breonna Taylor’s ex-boyfriend as part of a drugs probe were repeatedly told that she was not receiving suspicious packages for him at her home, but they still listed it in their search warrant and raided it.
Taylor was shot and killed as three cops returned fire on her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, in March. The cops had broken down her door with a battering ram in the middle of the night as part of an investigation into her previous boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover.
According to the cops, Taylor’s apartment in Louisville, Kentucky, was crucial to the investigation so it was a warranted raid. They say that Glover was picking up packages at the property earlier in the year and then driving to a known ‘drug house.’
However a newly released report reveals that officers asked the postal service whether or not any suspicious packages were being sent to Taylor’s home and were told no.
Jamarcus Glover, the ex-boyfriend police were investigating. Kenneth Walker, Taylor’s boyfriend who was with her the night she died
They still insisted on raiding it, even though Taylor had been described as a ‘soft target’ beforehand.
The police wanted to know if Glover was sending any packages to Taylor’s apartment that might have been relevant to their drug investigation, according to WDRB.
He had told them that he had shoes delivered to the address in January.
Recordings of police interviews about the investigation will be released on Friday.
Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron had tried to have the release delayed by a week, claiming he needed more time to redact witness names.
The judge gave him until Friday.
It came after a juror in the case filed a motion to have all of the evidence released.
On Tuesday night, Cameron sought to defend himself ahead of the release of records that the grand jury was shown.
He has been accused by an unidentified juror of publicly misrepresenting the incident with his submission of evidence and by recommending that only one of the cops should be charged.
Neither Jonathan Mattingly (left) nor Myles Cosgrove (right) have been charged over Taylor’s death
On Wednesday, his staff claimed they needed more time to redact some of the names involved. They want another week to complete their redactions.
Brett Hankison is the only cop out of the three who was charged. He was charged with wanton endangerment for a bullet that went into Taylor’s neighbor’s home
The evidence includes statements from a neighbor who first claimed to have heard the cops announce themselves but then changed their story to say that they didn’t.
The evidence also includes ‘recordings’ but it’s unclear if those are bodycam recordings or other types of footage.
On Monday, a juror filed a motion earlier this week to have all of the evidence released to the public. They say they are in turmoil over the fact that Cameron’s office only recommended that one of the cops should be charged with wanton endangerment, letting the two others completely off the hook, and without charging any of them with murder.
Taylor was shot and killed in her home in Louisville in March after three cops – Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove – opened fire on her apartment, where she was asleep with her boyfriend.
They were executing a no-knock search warrant for her apartment that was part of a drug trafficking probe into her ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover, at the time.
Taylor’s boyfriend at the time of her death, Kenneth Walker, awoke to the officers breaking down the door with a battering ram and opened fire. He says they did not announce themselves. The cops returned fire and Taylor was killed in the crossfire.
Despite global outrage over the killing – one of several this year that have highlighted police brutality against black Americans and sparked protests worldwide – nothing was done to charge the officers until last week when, after a grand jury was convened, Hankison was indicted.
Cameron’s office say that the two others are justified in returning fire and killing her because Walker opened fire first.
Daniel Cameron on Tuesday night sought to defend himself ahead of the release of records that the grand jury was shown. He has been accused by an unidentified juror of publicly misrepresenting the case
In an interview on Tuesday night, Cameron said that the jury should have brought murder charges against the other two cops if they wanted to but that his office didn’t because they would never have been able to prove them at trial.
‘Basically your question is about whether we recommended any murder charges against Cosgrove and Mattingly.
‘The answer is no. Ultimately, our judgement is that the charge that we could prove at trial beyond a reasonable doubt was for wanton endangerment against Hankison.
‘They are an independent body.
‘If they wanted to make an assessment about different charges, they could have done that.
‘But our recommendation was that (Jonathan) Mattingly and (Myles) Cosgrove were justified in their acts and their conduct,’ he told WDRB TV.
The juror spoke through their lawyer to say they were never given the option to charge the other two cops and that they were in ‘turmoil’ over the outcome.
‘This is something where the juror is not seeking any fame, any acclaim, any money,’ their attorney, Kevin M. Glogower, told The New York Times on Tuesday.