“Don’t go alone. This is our city. This is our city. “For months in Kentucky, residents outraged by the murder of Breonna Taylor fought for the police who shot them to prosecute them. [bell tolls] “Commonwealth of Kentucky versus Brett Hankison.” In September, a grand jury investigation charged an officer with shooting into a neighboring apartment and nobody with killing Taylor. “Is that the decision of the grand jury? I’ll grant the motion and assign a $ 15,000 cash bond and issue an arrest warrant. ” “Is that it?” “Is that the only charge?” “What about the other two?” “It can’t be. It can’t be.” “Nobody was held accountable. This is injustice and this is a starting clock for the next stage of our protest. “” Say her name. ” “Breonna Taylor.” What happened in the final minutes of Breonna Taylor’s life? A full narration of this story was hampered because none of the seven police officers who raided her home used body cameras, in violation of police policy. With the recent release of thousands of documents and pictures collected during three investigations, the Times opened a new investigation into the case. We used crime scene photos to create an accurate model of Taylor’s apartment. We have forensically mapped and traced the first bullet fired by Taylor’s friend and the 32 bullets the police fired in return – through windows, walls and ceilings. Using interviews that officers gave the investigators, we recorded their movements while they carried out the raid. And we analyzed hours of emergency calls, grand jury procedures, and SWAT team footage that had arrived after filming. “Ma’am, can you hear us?” Members of the grand jury have accused Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron of protecting the officers involved from murder charges. “Our investigation found that Mattingly and Cosgrove were justified in their use of force.” “Boom. Boom, boom, boom, boom.” Sergeant Mattingly may have been entitled to return fire if shot, but our new analysis paints a more complicated picture of how this heist was compromised from start to finish. We will Describing the flawed intelligence and tactical errors of a hodgepodge team of officers, the failure to properly announce their presence at Taylor, the chaos and excessive use of force that resulted. “There is another hole just below the clock. “And we’re going to investigate the damn analysis of a seasoned SWAT commander who was called to the scene after the shooting.“ We just felt like something really bad happened that night. ”The focus of the police investigation on March 13th is not on Taylor’s apartment, but on property 10 miles away in West Louisville, where dozens of SWAT and law enforcement officers live Arrest an ex-boyfriend of Taylor and his coworkers and seize evidence, including drugs. These officers wear their body cameras and conduct the assault safely and without incident. What the SWAT team does not know is that at this point a hastily assembled team of tranquilizer officers is about to raid Taylor’s house across town. They suspect their ex-boyfriend is keeping cash or drugs there, but their information is bad. They don’t know that she has a new boyfriend and they think that she lives alone. When seven officers start the raid at 12:40 p.m., they notice the lights are off except for a flicker of a TV in a bedroom – which suggests they know where Taylor is. She would be fatally shot in less than three minutes. Inside, Taylor had fallen asleep watching a movie with her boyfriend Kenneth Walker. Adjacent is Taylor’s sister’s bedroom, but she is not at home. A hallway from the bedrooms leads to a living area, and the entrance of the apartment is in that breeze. The only light is that lamp across from her door, where the police are now starting to pile up. During this reconstruction, we hear the official testimony of the two officers, Mattingly and Nobles, who are closest to the door. Cosgrove providing cover; and Hoover and Hankison beside them. And we’ll hear from neighbors and Kenneth Walker, who was interviewed by the police right after the shooting. Just as Mattingly starts knocking, a man comes out of the apartment directly overhead. He doesn’t live there, but picks up his child after work. An argument breaks out with Detective Brett Hankison, and the team already seems nervous. The man withdraws. The police are said to be conducting a raid, but Mattingly doesn’t say so at first. Taylor wakes up inside. Whether the police report clearly enough is a critical issue in this story that we will return to later. Not knowing who’s at the door that late, Walker reaches for his licensed pistol. You hurry to get dressed and go to the door. Outside, some police officers hear Taylor. But after knocking and waiting for about 45 seconds, they decided to give her enough time to answer and slam the door open. We’ll show here what the police and Walker describe next. The officers are now making a tactical mistake. Mattingly steps in the door and puts himself in the funnel that the police call fatal, a position prone to gunfire and difficult to move. The apartment is only lit by the breeze light coming from behind Mattingly and the dim glare of the TV in Taylor’s bedroom. Thinking it an intruder, Walker aims deep, shoots once, and hits Mattingly on the thigh. Mattingly immediately returns fire. Mattingly shoots two more rounds when he falls and takes cover. Almost at the same time, Cosgrove moves in, shoots, and kicks Mattingly. He’s now also sat in the deadly funnel and although he shoots, he doesn’t seem to have any idea what is happening. He continues to shoot blindly until he runs out of ammunition, a total of 16 rounds. In response to Walker’s shot, Mattingly and Cosgrove jointly shoot four shots at a chair, cabinets, and stove in the kitchen. Two balls go into the ceiling and go through the living room in the upstairs apartment where the man, his 2 year old daughter and his babysitter were waiting. Three more shots go into the wall of the living room on the right, and officers fired 13 rounds down the hallway where Taylor and Walker were standing. Taylor is shot six times in both sides of her body, in the stomach and chest, in the arm and leg, and twice in her foot. In total, these two officers shot 22 rounds in less than a minute. A F.B.I. The ballistics report found that they both shot Taylor and that one of the 16 rounds fired by Cosgrove was the fatal bullet. Some of the officers believe they have been attacked and flee when they hear a pause in shooting. We don’t know the exact sequence of events, but Detective Hankison runs forward. But the only ones who shoot are cops. Even though all the curtains are drawn, Hankison blindly shoots five bullets through the terrace window. He moves and shoots five more rounds through the bedroom window of Taylor’s sister, who is not at home. Two bullets fly over Walker and Taylor, but none hits them. The bullets that go into the living area go over Taylor’s sofa and kitchen table and smash her watch. Three break into the wall and enter their neighbor’s apartment. These bullets also smash the kitchen table, hit a wall, and break the patio doors in the back. A pregnant woman, her son and her partner were at home. Hankison was accused of willfully endangering her life. In total, the police fired 32 bullets and invaded almost every room in Taylor’s apartment. They hit pots and cereal boxes and hit her shower. They stab shoes, break cleaning tools and end up in their sister’s clothes. And three minutes after the police came to search her home, a fatally wounded Taylor lay on the floor. Months later, when Attorney General Daniel Cameron brought the charges against Hankison and said Mattingly and Cosgrove’s actions were justified, he insisted that the police had duly reported. “There is evidence that officials both knocked and announced their presence in the apartment.” In fact, the evidence is far from clear. When emergency calls are made immediately after the shooting, Taylor’s neighbors are unaware that the police are carrying out a raid. And in statements the police later made, none of Taylor’s neighbors heard the officers’ announcement. The patio door of this apartment was open. Two teenagers in that apartment heard a commotion but didn’t hear a police announcement through their open window, their mother said. And the family that lived directly above Taylor heard nothing either. In their testimony and in interviews with The Times, over a dozen neighbors say they did not hear the police. Attorney General Cameron’s allegation is based on reports from police officers and a single witness, Aaron Sarpee, the man who picked up his daughter that night and who saw the police when he came outside. In his first interview with investigators, Sarpee was asked what he heard when he went back inside. Months later, he told police that his memory was foggy, but he believed the officers announced it. And beyond what the police said, this critical conclusion by the grand jury was based on his utterly inconsistent account. After the robbery, there is chaos outside. Officers tend to be mattingly, but an ambulance that was stationed nearby is nowhere to be found. They radio the SWAT officers all over town – – who are surprised by the call. You go to Taylor’s address. By the time SWAT arrives, almost 40 police vehicles are already on site. Around this time, Taylor’s friend Kenneth Walker is arrested. Walker had called 911 and the neighbors heard his plea for help. But at 1 a.m., almost 20 minutes after the shooting, police still don’t know Taylor is badly injured inside. While Walker is being led out, SWAT prepares to secure the apartment. Only now, half an hour after the attack began, an E.M.T. Finally, check out Taylor. And later, when two officers stand guard, they record the scene. You see Taylor’s uniform. She worked as an emergency technician in city hospitals. You notice the bullet holes. Outside, the SWAT officers discuss what they saw. The SWAT commander, who was called to Taylor’s home after the robbery, was later interviewed by investigators. “We just felt that night that something really bad had happened.” Dale Massey, a 20-year-old police veteran, was extremely critical of what was going on. He said there was no coordination with SWAT. “We had no idea that they would be in this apartment that night. I would have advised them 100 percent not to do it. “And that executing another warrant at the same time may have endangered Taylor’s safety.” We treat security very seriously, right. So, concurrent warrants – bad deal. “Narcotics officers testified they didn’t know Taylor had a new boyfriend her sister lived there or that her 2 year old goddaughter stayed there regularly. Massey said the department had a history of collecting poor information. “We used to see a lot of detective information as golden. Not anymore. Because so often there are no children, there are.” no dog. There are children and dogs. So we have a full educational process to go through. “He said standing in the doorway that the deadly funnel, as Mattingly and Cosgrove had done, was a tactical mistake.” It is practical, or is it even common for three people to be in what we consider a deadly funnel? “” Absolutely t not. You never got yourself into this situation. “And that there is a right and a wrong way to carry out a raid. You knock, announce, and give people enough time to leave. “We’re not going to rush to get drugs. We’re not going to treat – human life is more important than loads of drugs, isn’t it?” And to be very clear, drugs were never found on Taylor. His toughest criticism was Hankison’s blind shots into the apartment. “You need to know A what you’re shooting at, B what’s in front of it, and B what’s behind it. There’s no other way you can work. It was just a tremendous act.” Under Kentucky law, Kenneth Walker had the right to stand up against what he thought was an attacker. And the police, in turn, have a right to self-defense. But in that analysis, the murder of Breonna Taylor resulted from poor planning and was compounded by ruthless execution. Louisville has Police reforms under way and Taylor’s family reached a substantial settlement, but the case is ongoing. Investigations and lawsuits continue, and nine months after Taylor’s death, her family is seeking a fresh investigation from the officers involved.
