LOUISVILLE, KY – In an exclusive interview with the Courier Journal and ABC News, Louisville Metro Police Sergeant, Jonathan Mattingly, spoke publicly for the first time about the fateful March night when Breonna Taylor was shot and killed by police, sparking protests that have raged in Louisville for over 140 consecutive days.
Mattingly was shot in the leg by Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, when police entered Taylor’s apartment, serving a search warrant as part of a narcotics operation.
The bullet severed Mattingly’s femoral artery, and he required emergency surgery.
Louisville police officer Jonathan Mattingly slammed Louisville city and police leadership for failing to squash “false narratives” that surrounded #BreonnaTaylor‘s death. https://t.co/i1JafKtaPN
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) October 21, 2020
Expressing “frustration” with “disinformation” that he says was spread after the police shooting of Taylor, Mattingly told Good Morning America co-anchor Michael Strahan:
“…this is not relatable to George Floyd. It’s nothing like it. It’s not Ahmaud Arbery. It’s nothing like it.
“These are two totally different type incidences.”
He added:
“It’s not a race thing, like people want to try to make it to be.
“This is a point where we were doing our job, we gave too much time when we go in, I get shot, we returned fire.”
Mattingly also said:
“What we were being was someone who’s defending their lives against gunfire coming at them.”
Mattingly indicated that a negative view of police naturally distorted perceptions of the incident.
He said:
“I think that’s part of the problem because the people who say there’s all this injustice and all that are the people who deal with the police in negative connotations.
“So naturally, their view of the police is going to be skewed and not good.”
Strahan bolstered Mattingly’s comments on this perception after he asked Mattingly if there was a “racist divide between the community and LAPD.”
Mattingly responded that he thought there were people who “stir things up and make it more of that.”
He further explained to Strahan:
“When you’re dealing with criminal element, you know, you talk about racial profiling, good police anyway, police I’ve worked with, don’t racial profile.
“You criminal profile.
“Let’s address the fact that just because you’re black, you’re a threat.
“That’s not the case.”
Strahan pushed the issue further, saying:
“That’s how black men feel. That’s how black women feel.”
Mattingly responded:
“But does that make it real?”
Strahan said:
“If you feel, then it’s real.”
Mattingly replied:
“No, not necessarily.”
Also during the course of the interview, the Sergeant indicated that he had decided he would not be returning to police work, citing negative public perception and lack of action by the mayor’s office to dispel disinformation.
According to the Courier Journal:
“He said his name has been so smeared that it likely would be unsafe for his family for him to return.”
Mattingly called out Louisville Mayor, Greg Fischer, for not clearing up misinformation, which he said “added fuel to the fire.”
Such misinformation included:
“claims that Taylor was asleep, that officers were at the wrong home, or that Taylor didn’t know Jamarcus Glover, Taylor’s ex-boyfriend who was a main target in the narcotics investigation that led to the attempted search of Taylor’s home, which he said would have been possible to clarify without harming the case.”
Mattingly added that he had “begged” Fischer’s office to share factual information, but was told that officials did not want to set a precedent for cases in the future.
If facts had been set straight, he said, a lot of public outcry could have been avoided.
He stated:
“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 also pointed the finger at Florida-based Taylor family attorney, Ben Crump for being an “agitator” who created chaos and then left the city.
He stated that Crump came to Louisville and was:
“stirring up all this stuff and then leaving your city. He didn’t have to pick the pieces up.”
He added:
“[Crump] simply comes in, causes problems, throws out all these either direct lies, or these innuendos, and leaves people hanging, and then he disappears.”
Officer in Breonna Taylor’s fatal shooting says the incident was not racial https://t.co/NrubWmWUzI
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) October 21, 2020
Mattingly, who is a father of four and recently became a grandfather, said his family has been targeted during the aftermath of the shooting. One night, on the advice of the FBI, they had to leave their home due to a credible threat.
Also a few days ago, someone threatened to “kidnap, tie up, and torture his young son.”
During the interview, Mattingly spoke of Taylor’s family that of course has been rocked by the shooting death of Breonna, and its aftermath.
He said:
“I feel for her. I hurt for her mother and for her sisters.”
He added:
“It’s not just a passing ‘Oh, this is part of the job, we did it and move on.’ It’s not like that. I mean Breonna Taylor is now attached to me for the rest of my life.
“And that’s not again, ‘Woe is me.’ That’s me feeling for them. That’s me having a heart and a soul, going as a parent, ‘How do you move on?’
“I don’t know. I don’t want to experience it.”
In a heartfelt message to Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, Mattingly said:
“Ms. Palmer, nobody should ever have to go through what you’re feeling. Nobody can sympathize or feel what you’re feeling unless they’ve lost a child.
“There’s no way I could ever tell you enough how much I wish this hadn’t taken place.
“No amount of money in the world is going to change that. Police reforms aren’t going to bring her back.
He concluded:
“But I just hope that you can find it in your heart at some point to find some peace, find some- some love in the future, and I pray that everybody learns something from this, and that this tragedy never happens again to any other family.”
Below is our piece correcting a number of misconceptions and misinformation surrounding the case of Breonna Taylor:
LOUISVILLE, KY- Anarchy erupted following a grand jury’s decision on Wednesday to press charges on an officer involved in the death of Breonna Taylor.
Rioters and media outlets have been spinning key details of the case to fit their narrative. Now, we have to set the record straight.
First, the events that led up to Breonna Taylor’s death are often glossed over by the media.
Jamarcus Glover, Breonna Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, had multiple warrants out for his arrest and was being investigated for narcotics. A narcotics investigation that involved Glover led local law enforcement to obtain two no-knock search warrants for Taylor’s apartment.
Glover did not live in Taylor’s place of residence but detective Joshua Jaynes argued in the affidavit for the warrant that his presence made the search necessary.
According to a recount of the affidavit by The Courier Journal Glover was frequently seen in and around the apartment:
- “Glover’s car had made “frequent” trips to Taylor’s Springfield Drive apartment.
- Glover walked directly into Taylor’s apartment on Jan. 16.
- A U.S. postal inspector verified Glover received packages at Taylor’s apartment.
- Taylor’s car had been seen in front of Elliott Avenue on “different occasions.”
This information calls into question the relationship of Taylor and Glover who had been separated for years. Though Taylor’s estate attorney, Sam Aguiar, maintained that the pair were “passive friends,” reporting by the The Courier Journal showed the pair had much closer ties:
“On Jan. 3, for example, following Glover’s arrest on trafficking and weapons charges, he called Taylor from the jail and asked her to contact one of his co-defendants to get bail money.
Taylor responded that the associate was “already at the trap” — slang for a house used for drug trafficking.
Glover told her to be on standby to pick him up if he made bail. “I’m going to get me some rest in your bed,” he said, according to the recording.
“Love you,” he said, at the end of the call.
“Love you, too,” she replied.”
After listening to the conversation above Aguilar issued an apology for “mischaracterizing” their relationship.
The Courier Journal reported:
“In his email to The Courier Journal, Aguiar apologized to “the public and to Breonna’s family” for mischaracterizing the relationship, saying it was based on an erroneous conclusion he drew without the benefit of the jail recording.”
There have also been accusations that suggest Taylor took part criminal behavior and drug dealing along with Glover.
Evidence to prove this was given during a call made by Glover from jail. After being arrested on March 13th Glover told a girlfriend that Taylor was holding $8,000 for him and had been “handling all my money.”
This statement was recanted in August by Glover who denied Taylor had been holding money for him. Police were unable to find drugs or money while searching Taylor’s apartment. Given the lack of evidence found and Taylor’s clean record it is difficult to say whether Taylor partook in criminal activity.
There has also been false information reported regarding the search itself. Shortly after midnight on March 13, the night of the raid, officers arrived at Taylor’s apartment where she and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were sleeping.
One of the most contentious pieces of this case is whether police alerted Taylor of their presence. Though the officers were not obligated to inform the couple, given the no-knock warrant, neighbors reported that they heard officers identify themselves before entering the apartment.
During an NPR interview Amina Elahi, a reporter for WFPL, said that Attorney General Daniel Cameron confirmed, while they didn’t have to, the officers identified themselves:
“What Cameron said about this was that they interviewed one of Breonna Taylor’s neighbors, who corroborated the police’s claim that they said who they were before breaking down her door.”
Other neighbors disagreed and claimed that they didn’t hear officers introduce themselves before entering the apartment.
Police then used a battering ram to enter the apartment where Walker and Taylor were waiting. As they walked down the hallway to the front door three officers entered the apartment causing Walker to fire what he deemed a “warning shot” at officers. Officers then returned fire striking Taylor five times. Taylor died in the hallway.
Walker claims that the shot he fired was aimed at the ground to warn off the intruders, however this claim was debunked by Attorney General Cameron.
During the NPR interview Elahi also reported that the bullet that struck Mattingly came from Walker:
“Attorney General Cameron also said the ballistics report confirmed that the bullet that struck Sergeant Jonathan Mattingly came from Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker.”
Walker’s first shot hit Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in the upper thigh forcing officers to fire back, making their shots justified. Although the officers were not tried for homicide, one of the officers, Brett Hankison, was indicted on Wednesday for endangering bystanders. He is being charged with three counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree after one of the shots went into another apartment.
The lawsuit stated:
“Shots were blindly fired by the officers all throughout Breonna’s home and also into the adjacent home, where a five-year-old child and a pregnant mother had been sleeping.”
Following the decision not to charge the three officers with the murder or Taylor cities across the US erupted into violence and anarchy.
