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Breonna Taylor Grand Jury Audio Reveals Conflicting Accounts of Fatal Raid Breonna Taylor Grand Jury Audio Reveals Conflicting Accounts of Fatal Raid
(about 3 hours later)
Two very different accounts emerged on Friday from either side of an apartment door in Louisville, the one that police officers knocked off its hinges in March as they delivered a search warrant at the home of Breonna Taylor. LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Two very different accounts emerged on Friday from either side of an apartment door in Louisville, the one that police officers knocked off its hinges in March as they delivered a search warrant at the home of Breonna Taylor.
In newly-released audio from closed-door grand jury proceedings, there was conflicting testimony over what happened in the seconds before the police shot and killed Ms. Taylor, a Black emergency room technician whose death pulled people to the streets in protests across the country. In newly released audio from closed-door grand jury proceedings, there was conflicting testimony over what happened in the seconds before the police shot and killed Ms. Taylor, a Black emergency room technician whose death pulled people to the streets in protests across the country.
Ms. Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, said in the new recordings that he was “scared to death” when he and Ms. Taylor heard pounding on the door in the middle of the night and got no response to their yelled queries of who was knocking. Ms. Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, said in the recordings that he was “scared to death” when he and Ms. Taylor heard pounding on the door in the middle of the night and got no response after they yelled, “Who is it?”
The officers involved in the raid, though, insisted in interviews with investigators that they had loudly identified themselves as police before they burst through the door. It was only after one officer was shot, they said, that they opened fired at the couple, killing Ms. Taylor. The officers involved in the raid, though, insisted in interviews with investigators that they had loudly identified themselves as the police before they burst through the door. It was only after one officer was shot by Mr. Walker, they said, that they opened fire at the couple, killing Ms. Taylor.
The dueling accounts of a chaotic and tragic night are captured in 15 hours of recordings from the grand jury’s examination of the fatal raid. For the first time, some of those directly involved in the police shooting — including neighbors, officers and Ms. Taylor’s boyfriend — are heard describing the fateful night. The dueling accounts of a chaotic and tragic night are captured in 15 hours of recordings from the grand jury’s examination of the fatal raid, which was part of a drug investigation targeting a man who was arrested elsewhere. For the first time, some of those directly involved in the police shooting — including neighbors, officers and Mr. Walker — are heard describing the fateful night.
“Next thing I know, she’s on the ground and the door’s busted open and I hear a bunch of yelling and just panicking,” Mr. Walker, said in an interview with investigators in March that was played for the grand jury last week. “And she’s right here bleeding,” he adds of Ms. Taylor. “And nobody’s coming, and I’m just confused and scared.” “Next thing I know, she’s on the ground and the door’s busted open and I hear a bunch of yelling and just panicking,” Mr. Walker said about Ms. Taylor in an interview with investigators in March that was played for the grand jury last week. “And she’s right here bleeding,” he added. “And nobody’s coming, and I’m just confused and scared.”
The grand jury concluded its work last week by bringing an indictment against one former officer for endangering Ms. Taylor’s neighbors; they brought no charges against the two officers who shot her. The grand jury concluded its work by bringing an indictment against one former officer for endangering Ms. Taylor’s neighbors; it brought no charges against the two officers who shot her.
Daniel Cameron, the Kentucky attorney general, released the recordings on Friday after a judge ordered him to do so, but the recordings did not include the instructions that prosecutors gave to the 12 jurors. One juror said Mr. Cameron was deflecting blame by saying it was jurors who had opted not to indict the two officers who shot Ms. Taylor.Daniel Cameron, the Kentucky attorney general, released the recordings on Friday after a judge ordered him to do so, but the recordings did not include the instructions that prosecutors gave to the 12 jurors. One juror said Mr. Cameron was deflecting blame by saying it was jurors who had opted not to indict the two officers who shot Ms. Taylor.
One of those officers, Detective Myles Cosgrove, who the F.B.I. said fired the shot that killed Ms. Taylor, described in the audio being uncertain about exactly what occurred during the chaos after police used a battering ram to burst into Ms. Taylor’s apartment and were shot at by Mr. Walker. One of those officers, Detective Myles Cosgrove, who the F.B.I. said fired the shot that killed Ms. Taylor, described in the audio being uncertain about exactly what occurred during the chaos after the police used a battering ram to burst into Ms. Taylor’s apartment.
“I just sensed that I’ve fired,” Detective Cosgrove said in an interview last month that was played for the jurors. But, he added: “It’s like a surreal thing. If you told me I didn’t do something at that time, I’d believe you. If you told me I did do something, I’d probably believe you, too.”“I just sensed that I’ve fired,” Detective Cosgrove said in an interview last month that was played for the jurors. But, he added: “It’s like a surreal thing. If you told me I didn’t do something at that time, I’d believe you. If you told me I did do something, I’d probably believe you, too.”
The grand jurors met in person over three days last week and reviewed police interviews of officers and witnesses at the scene, 911 calls and body camera videos from after Ms. Taylor was shot. They also met directly with detectives who had investigated the killing, and the jurors sound at times inquisitive or skeptical on the recordings, peppering detectives with questions and pointing out inconsistencies in some of the officers’ accounts. The grand jurors met in person over three days and reviewed police interviews of officers and witnesses at the scene, 911 calls and body camera videos from after Ms. Taylor was shot. They also met directly with detectives who had investigated the killing.
Below are highlights of the evidence presented in the new recordings. At times the jurors sound inquisitive or skeptical on the recordings, peppering the detectives with questions and pointing out inconsistencies in some of the officers’ accounts. Below are highlights of the evidence presented in the new recordings.
Detective Myles Cosgrove, who the F.B.I. said fired the shot that killed Ms. Taylor, described a disorienting scene of flashing lights as officers breached the door and seemed to suggest uncertainty about exactly what happened. The audio files do not include statements or recommendations from prosecutors about which charges they think should be brought against the officers who took part in the raid. Mr. Cameron has said that jurors were told that the two officers who shot Ms. Taylor — Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and Detective Cosgrove, both of whom are white — were justified in their actions.
“I know that I have fired,” he said during an interview he gave police investigators last month that was played for the grand jury. “I just sensed that I’ve fired.” Mr. Cameron said prosecutors’ statements and jurors’ deliberations “were not recorded, as they are not evidence.” He has insisted that the jurors were given “all of the evidence” and were free to pursue additional charges.
But, he added, “It’s like a surreal thing. If you told me I didn’t do something at that time, I’d believe you. If you told me I did do something, I’d probably believe you, too.” His release of the audiotapes came after a grand juror asked for the proceedings to be made public and accused Mr. Cameron of using the jurors to deflect blame over the decision. Grand jurors are given broad powers, but prosecutors often closely guide the jurors and inform them about their role. The process almost always remains secret.
As soon as he got to the doorway, Detective Cosgrove said, he was “overwhelmed with bright flashes and darkness. And what I describe as a movie reel that’s doing that ticking where you see white and black, white and black.” The grand jurors indicted Brett Hankison, a former detective, on three counts of “wanton endangerment,” saying Mr. Hankison had recklessly fired his gun into a neighboring apartment during the raid.
Detective Cosgrove said that Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, who was shot in the leg during the raid, fell to the ground and that he had to step over his wounded colleague. Detective Cosgrove described a disorienting scene as officers breached Ms. Taylor’s door and seemed to suggest uncertainty about exactly what happened.
“I know John, my friend that I’ve known for 15 years, has been shot in this confined space,” Detective Cosgrove said. “And I know this person is down and I sense that there’s still these gunshots happening due to those bright lights. I can’t even explain what it is.” As soon as he got to the doorway, Detective Cosgrove said in an interview he gave police investigators last month, he was “overwhelmed with bright flashes and darkness, and what I describe as a movie reel that’s doing that ticking where you see white and black, white and black.”
Detective Cosgrove said he also saw a shadow of a person, a “larger than normal human shadow,” when they raided the apartment. Detective Cosgrove said that Sergeant Mattingly, who investigators say was shot in the leg by Mr. Walker, fell to the ground and that he had to step over his wounded colleague.
After jurors heard a recording of the interview that Detective Cosgrove gave to investigators, one juror asked, “Does he have a history of panic attacks?” “I know John, my friend that I’ve known for 15 years, has been shot in this confined space,” Detective Cosgrove said in the interview, which was played for the grand jury last week. “And I know this person is down and I sense that there’s still these gunshots happening due to those bright lights. I can’t even explain what it is.”
Detective Jeff Fogg, an investigator with the attorney general’s office who interviewed Detective Cosgrove, said he did not know. After grand jurors heard a recording of the interview that Detective Cosgrove gave to investigators, one juror asked, “Does he have a history of panic attacks?” An investigator with the attorney general’s office said he did not know.
“In these types of situations, whatever happened that night, everybody responds to it differently,” Detective Fogg responded. Mr. Hankison, who was fired in June, can be heard on a radio call the night of the raid — released in the new trove of recordings — shouting about someone inside Ms. Taylor’s apartment with an “A.R.”
Kenneth Walker, Ms. Taylor’s boyfriend, told investigators he was “scared to death” when he heard loud banging on the apartment door and did not get a response when he and Ms. Taylor asked who was there. He thought he saw someone inside armed with an AR-15, a type of military-style semiautomatic rifle, Mr. Hankison later explained in a March 25 interview with investigators that was played for the grand jury. No such weapon was found. He also told investigators that he had not anticipated a firefight. He expected one unarmed woman, who had no criminal record, to be home alone, he said.
Mr. Walker, who investigators have said shot the first officer who walked through the door in the leg, said he grabbed his gun after he and Ms. Taylor repeatedly yelled, “Who is it?” Mr. Walker said that he and Ms. Taylor were watching a movie with the lights off when they heard loud knocking on the door and that they had been “scared to death” when they asked who was there and heard no response.
The police said in interviews that were also released on Friday that they had loudly announced themselves several times before breaking down Ms. Taylor’s door, but Mr. Walker said they had not heard anything but the knocking. They both got up and began to put their clothes on, he said, with Ms. Taylor asking “at the top of her lungs” who was at the door. Mr. Walker said he fired one shot from his gun before he could see who was there after the police officers knocked the door off its hinges.
Mr. Walker said that he and Ms. Taylor were watching a movie with the lights off when they heard the knocking, and that they both got up and began to put their clothes on, with Ms. Taylor asking “at the top of her lungs” who was at the door. He took deep breaths as he gave his account of what happened to investigators on the same day that Ms. Taylor was shot; the interview was later played for the grand jurors. “All of a sudden, there’s a whole lot of shots,” Mr. Walker said. Mr. Cameron, the attorney general, has said that the police fired a total of 32 rounds, at least six of which struck Ms. Taylor.
As he and Ms. Taylor began to walk out of the bedroom and toward the door, he said, he saw the door go off its hinges. Mr. Walker said he fired one shot from his gun before he could even see who was at the door.
“All of a sudden, there’s a whole lot of shots,” Mr. Walker said. Mr. Cameron, the attorney general, has said that the police fired a total of 32 rounds, at least six of which struck Ms. Taylor.
“They’re just shooting, like, we’re both on the ground,” Mr. Walker said. Then the shots stopped, Mr. Walker said, and he saw that Ms. Taylor was bleeding.
“Next thing I know, she’s on the ground and the door’s busted open and I hear a bunch of yelling and just panicking,” Mr. Walker said, adding of Ms. Taylor: “And she’s right here bleeding. And nobody’s coming, and I’m just confused and scared.”
Mr. Walker said that just after the shooting, an officer told him that he was going to jail for the rest of his life and asked him, “Were you hit by any bullets?”Mr. Walker said that just after the shooting, an officer told him that he was going to jail for the rest of his life and asked him, “Were you hit by any bullets?”
Mr. Walker said that when he replied, “No,” the officer responded by saying, “That’s unfortunate.”Mr. Walker said that when he replied, “No,” the officer responded by saying, “That’s unfortunate.”
Mr. Walker added that those were the officer’s “exact words.” He said that he did not know which officer had told him that, but it was definitely an officer in uniform. In the courtroom, someone responded: “That’s not appropriate.” In the grand jury room, someone can be heard on the audio saying “that’s not appropriate.”
At least two Louisville police officers who raided Ms. Taylor’s apartment said in interviews played for the grand jury that the group had knocked and announced its presence several times before breaking down the door.
Detective Cosgrove told investigators that their volume had escalated over 90 seconds from “gentle knocking” to “forceful pounding” to pounding while yelling “police.” Detective Michael Nobles said he had knocked and announced himself for one or two minutes before using a battering ram to force his way into Ms. Taylor’s apartment.
Detective Nobles told investigators that he had heard movement and voices, including a female voice, inside the apartment before the police entered. He said it took three knocks with the battering ram to break down the door completely. When he entered the apartment, Mr. Nobles said, it was “pitch black,” and Sergeant Mattingly was quickly shot in the leg.
Ms. Taylor’s next-door neighbors said they were awakened by banging but did not hear anyone announce that they were the police, according to interviews they gave to investigators. Once the shooting subsided, the neighbors said, they heard Ms. Taylor’s boyfriend sobbing and screaming for help.
One neighbor, Elaine Williams, said she was awakened by what she thought was pounding at her own front door. Thinking that it was morning and that her granddaughter was being dropped off, Ms. Williams said she went to her front door and opened it.
“It was dark and she could smell gunpowder,” Detective Herman Hall, an investigator with the attorney general’s office, told grand jurors, reading from notes about the interview with Ms. Williams. He added that she said she thought, “What the hell is going on?”
Ms. Williams said she also heard Mr. Walker yelling for help, saying: “Baby, breathe! Baby, breathe! Please breathe!”
In previous interviews with The New York Times, 11 of 12 witnesses on the scene that night said they never heard the police identify themselves. One of them said he heard the group say “police” just once.
The dozen grand jurors appeared inquisitive throughout the proceedings, asking witnesses about the evidence and sometimes sounding skeptical about what was provided to them.The dozen grand jurors appeared inquisitive throughout the proceedings, asking witnesses about the evidence and sometimes sounding skeptical about what was provided to them.
The first witness before the grand jury was an investigator for the attorney general’s office who presented photos and videos of the scene, including the body camera videos of three officers who arrived after the shots were fired. The questioning was led by Barbara Maines Whaley, an assistant attorney general. Grand jurors asked whether Mr. Walker, Ms. Taylor’s boyfriend, had been named in the search warrant (he had not), what the officers saw when the apartment door opened, and whether the officers executing the warrant were aware that the police had already found Jamarcus Glover, an ex-boyfriend of Ms. Taylor’s who was the target of the drug investigation.
Grand jurors asked whether Kenneth Walker, Ms. Taylor’s boyfriend, had been named in the search warrant (he had not), what exactly the officers saw when the apartment door opened, and whether the officers executing the warrant were aware that the police had already found Jamarcus Glover, an ex-boyfriend of Ms. Taylor’s who was the target of the drug investigation. Mr. Glover was in custody by the time the police raided Ms. Taylor’s apartment.
Mr. Glover was in custody by the time the police raided Ms. Taylor’s apartment. At one point, a juror asked about the time stamps on a video. Another asked why they had not seen the room where the gun was found; the investigator said that the room would be shown in a different video. The grand jurors asked a detective from the attorney general’s office several questions on the third and final day that they met, just hours before indicting Mr. Hankison.
The grand jurors peppered a detective from the attorney general’s office with several questions on the third and final day that they met, just hours before indicting Mr. Hankison. They asked if the police had recovered drugs or money from the apartment; the detective said no, and that the police had not searched the apartment for drugs or paraphernalia after shooting Ms. Taylor. They asked whether he had diagrams of the scene (no) and why the officers’ body cameras were not activated (the detective said he did not know). They asked if the police had recovered drugs or money from the apartment; the detective said no, and that the police had not searched the apartment for drugs or paraphernalia after shooting Ms. Taylor. They asked whether he had diagrams of the scene (no) and why the officers’ body cameras were not activated (the detective said he did not know).
Grand jurors heard at least two Louisville police officers who were at the raid on Ms. Taylor’s apartment say the group knocked and announced their presence several times before breaking down the door, according to a recording of the proceedings released on Friday. Will Wright reported from Louisville, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs from New York, and John Eligon from Kansas City, Mo. Reporting was contributed by Serge F. Kovaleski, Richard A. Oppel Jr., Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio and Shaila Dewan from New York.
Those accounts, which have been questioned by several of Ms. Taylor’s neighbors and her boyfriend, were included among roughly 15 hours of audio filed by the attorney general on Friday, which includes interviews heard by the grand jury over several days last week.
Detective Cosgrove, one of the two officers who shot Ms. Taylor, said that a neighbor came outside and got into an argument with Brett Hankison, a former officer who fired his weapon during the raid and whom the grand jury indicted on charges of endangering Ms. Taylor’s neighbors.
The unidentified neighbor yelled at them, “something about leave her alone, there was some girl there,” Detective Cosgrove said in an interview with police investigators last month that was played for the grand jury.
He said officers were outside knocking for 90 seconds, and that the volume escalated from “gentle knocking” to “forceful pounding” to pounding while yelling “police.”
Another officer at the raid, Detective Michael Nobles, told police investigators he heard movement and voices, including a female voice, inside the apartment before the police entered.
Detective Nobles, who held the battering ram that broke through Ms. Taylor’s door, said he stood at the door, knocking and announcing himself as police for one or two minutes before he used the battering ram to force his way into Ms. Taylor’s apartment. His interview was also played for grand jurors. He said it took three knocks with the battering ram to break down the door completely.
The first blow hit the handle, he said. The second broke the door, but left it still on the hinges. The third broke down the door completely.
When he entered, Mr. Nobles said it was “pitch black,” and that Sgt. John Mattingly, one of the officers who shot Ms. Taylor, was quickly shot in the leg after the team entered the building.
In previous interviews with The Times, 11 of 12 of Ms. Taylor’s neighbors said they never heard the police identify themselves. One neighbor said he heard the group say “Police,” just once.
Grand jurors were played recordings of radio calls from Mr. Hankison, the detective who fired blindly from outside the apartment and has been charged with three counts of wanton endangerment.
“Officer down on Springfield!” Mr. Hankison shouted into the radio at 12:43 a.m.
The calls suggest that Mr. Hankison, who was fired several months after the shooting, believed that Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly had been wounded by someone with an “AR” — short for AR-15, a type of a military-style semiautomatic rifle — who was “barricaded” inside the apartment.
In fact, investigators later said, Sergeant Mattingly was struck by a 9-millimeter round fired by Kenneth Walker, Ms. Taylor’s boyfriend, who has said he mistook the officers for intruders.
During a March 25 interview with investigators that was also played for the grand jury, Mr. Hankison said he saw a figure inside Ms. Taylor’s apartment holding what he believed to be an AR-15.
Mr. Hankison told investigators he did not remember if he returned fire after the team broke down the door, or if he immediately spun around and exited the hallway.
Once he retreated, Mr. Hankison said, he went around the side of the apartment to get a better vantage point. He said he could see muzzle flashes through the sliding glass door and heard that an officer had been shot. The gunfire intensified as he peered through the window, Mr. Hankison said. “I could see it lighting up the room.”
Mr. Hankison said he then shot through the window toward where he believed the shooter to be, then changed locations and fired through another window. Shortly after that, the muzzle flashes ceased, Mr. Hankison said.
The Louisville Metro Police Department fired Mr. Hankison in June. The police chief at the time accused him of violating the department’s policy on the use of deadly force, saying he had “wantonly and blindly” fired 10 shots into Ms. Taylor’s apartment.
Mr. Hankison told investigators in the March interview that he had not anticipated a firefight. He expected one unarmed woman, who had no criminal record, to be home alone, he said.
After hearing Mr. Hankison’s recorded interview, one juror questioned his account of where he perceived the shooter to be, and why he had fired through multiple windows. Other jurors questioned Mr. Hankison’s account of events as compared to other testimonies they had heard.
“You are hearing several accounts of what happened,” said Detective Jeff Fogg, an investigator with the attorney general’s office. “So that’s the challenge here, to try and keep everything as part of the entire picture.”
The only charges brought by the grand jury were three counts of “wanton endangerment in the first degree” against Mr. Hankison for his actions during the raid.
Under Kentucky law, a person commits that crime when he or she “wantonly engages in conduct which creates a substantial danger of death or serious physical injury to another person,” and does so “under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life.” Other states may use terms like “reckless endangerment” for an equivalent offense.
But the charges against Mr. Hankison are not for killing Ms. Taylor. None of the 10 shots he fired are known to have struck her. Instead, the Kentucky attorney general said the former detective was charged by the grand jury because the shots he fired had passed through Ms. Taylor’s apartment walls into a neighboring apartment, endangering three people there.
Mr. Hankison is charged with one count for each of the neighboring apartment’s occupants: a pregnant woman, her husband and their 5-year-old child, who were asleep. They were not hit by the shots.
The crime is a Class D felony in Kentucky, which means it can carry a sentence of up to five years in prison and a fine on conviction for each count.
A person can be guilty of wanton endangerment even if they did not intend to harm anyone or to commit a crime; it is sufficient to recklessly disregard the peril that one’s actions create.
Mr. Hankison was fired from the force. During the raid, he fired into her apartment from outside, through a sliding glass patio door and a window that were covered with blinds, in violation of a department policy that requires officers to have a line of sight.
The name Breonna Taylor has echoed across the nation for months as demonstrators demanded the police be held accountable for her death.
Outrage over the killing of Ms. Taylor, 26, has spread far from Louisville, with protests drawing crowds in cities across the United States, beginning in the spring and continuing throughout the summer. Rallying cries of “Say Her Name” have been ubiquitous at the rallies.
The police killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died in May after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by a white police officer’s knee, brought renewed attention to deadly episodes involving the police, including Ms. Taylor’s death, and fueled Black Lives Matter protests that persisted throughout the summer.
In September, when the grand jury announced no charges against the officers who killed Ms. Taylor, protesters poured into the streets of Louisville with renewed strength and anger, demanding stronger charges. The protesters called for all three officers, who are white, to be held to account for Ms. Taylor’s death.
Ms. Taylor’s family, too, has pleaded for justice, pushing for criminal charges against the officers. Ms. Taylor’s case has also been the center of campaigns from several celebrities and athletes, some of whom have dedicated their seasons to keeping a spotlight on her case.
Reporting was contributed by Shaila Dewan, Serge F. Kovaleski, Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio and Richard A. Oppel Jr.