Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend files federal lawsuit against Louisville police for violating his rights in a raid

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The lawsuit stems from the flawed raid on Taylor’s apartment on March 13, 2020. Walker, who thought agents were intruders, fired one shot when agents broke open the door and Sgt. John Mattingly in the leg, authorities said. The officers responded to a barrage of gunfire throughout the apartment, killing Taylor and nearly hitting a family in another apartment, according to a statement by the state attorney general.
Walker was arrested and charged with shooting an officer, but those charges were initially dismissed last year and dismissed with prejudice or final last week.

Walker’s attorneys, filed Friday in the US District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, allege in the lawsuit that LMPD officers violated Walker’s Fourth Amendment rights when they executed the search warrant on Taylor’s home.

The lawsuit alleges that the warrant was based on fabricated allegations; the raid was unnecessarily carried out in the middle of the night; the officers did not reveal that they were police; and the officers responded with excessive force. The lawsuit also alleges that officers who carried out the raid did not coordinate with the Louisville Metro Police SWAT team, which, according to the lawsuit, typically handles no-knock raids.

Furthermore, the lawsuit provides broader criticism of the LMPD, saying it allows officers to execute search warrants late at night and that it is routinely done “regardless of the circumstances.” The lawsuit alleges that late night searches “predictably lead to dangerous situations where the targets of the searches mistake the police for intruders.”

A year later, Breonna Taylor's mother and lawyers still want to answer to the police who murdered her

LMPD said it does not comment on pending litigation. However, the agents involved in the raid told investigators that they knocked repeatedly and announced themselves before storming through her front door with a battering ram.

Cliff Sloan, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, one of the attorneys Walker represented, told CNN in a statement Saturday that the lawsuit was important in defending Walker’s rights.

“We try to ensure that there is justice and accountability for the tragic and unjustified police attack on Kenneth Walker and the murder of Breonna Taylor in her home in the middle of the night,” he said.

Taylor’s death has sparked widespread protests against the ways in which law enforcement can devalue the lives of black people. Her death has also led to a wider recognition of the dangers of burglary, for both home residents and the police. The Louisville Metro Council unanimously passed “Breonna’s law” last June prohibiting search warrants.
No officer involved was directly charged with Taylor’s death. Former Detective Brett Hankison, one of the officers who opened fire on the night of the raid, was charged with three charges of first degree willful danger because he allegedly shot blindly into the apartment, endangering a neighboring family of three. according to a September 2020 statement by Attorney General Daniel Cameron. He pleaded not guilty.
Joshua Jaynes, who wrote the search warrant for the raid, was fired in January. His attorney said he intended to appeal the termination. Another detective involved in the raid, Myles Cosgrove, was also fired in January.

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