Months after 26-year-old Breonna Taylor was fatally shot by Louisville police officers, new and revealing information is still surfacing. Newly released audio from interviews conducted during the investigation into Talyorโs death shows drastic differences between how one of the officers involved in the shooting was questioned and how Kenneth WalkerโTaylorโs boyfriend who was arrested at the sceneโwas handled in questioning. Thereโs also new footage showing Walkerโs arrest that night, taken from a neighborโs camera phone and shared publicly by Taylorโs sister.
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Walkerโs attorneys provided NBC News with audio from two interviews conducted by investigators. One audio file is of Walkerโs interview, the other is that of Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, who was shot in the leg during the raid on Taylorโs apartment.
The first thing that should raise eyebrows is the timing of each interview. According to NBC, Mattinglyโs interview wasnโt conducted until almost two weeks after the shooting and with his attorney present. Walker, on the other hand, was interviewed hours after the shooting and was talked into waiving his right to an attorney. Days after the interview, Walker was indicted on attempted murder charges which were later dismissed. So Walker was questioned and brought up on charges, all before Mattingly was even questioned.
Then, there are the interviews themselves.
From NBC News:
At 4 a.m., hours after the raid, PIU Sgt. Amanda Seelye introduces herself to Walker.
She and her colleague Sgt. Chad Tinnell explain to a tearful Walker that their team is like โinternal affairs.โ
โWe investigate officer-involved shootings,โ Seelye says. โWeโre here just to try to find out what happened.โ
โIโm scared about what to say,โ Walker says.
She encourages him to sign the Miranda rights waiver and talk.
โIt would be good for you to sign this and then we can get you, get your statement and then we can leave you alone,โ she tells Walker. Heโs compliant, later also providing his iPhone passcode when Seelye asks for it.
Walker explained to Seelye why he fired at who he thought were intruders.
โItโs the middle of the night,โ he said. โSomebody is beating on the door and not saying who they are...What are you going to do?
โI know yโall have guns at home. Youโre going to grab it and be cautious like, โOkay, so whatโs going on?โ Youโre creeping towards (the door)...โWho is it? Who is it?โ You donโt know who it is and then the door flies open?โ
Walker also told Seelye that, during his arrest, an officer with a dog told him โโIโm going to let this dog on you, youโre going to jail for the rest of your life.โ
He also said the officer asked, โโDid you get hit by any bullets? And Iโm like, โNo.โ He said, โOh, thatโs unfortunate.โโ
Walker also described an interaction with a plainclothes police officer who told him, while he was in the police car, that there had been some kind of โmisunderstanding.โ
โWhyโd he say to me that there was a misunderstanding?โ he asked Seelye.
โI donโt know,โ Seelye responded. โThatโs some new information for us as well.โ
โโIโm not an idiot,โ Walker said. โThey figured out something. They did something wrong.โ
Six days later, Seelye testified in front of a grand jury. In her testimony, she describes the shooting but doesnโt mention that Walker told her he thought they were intruders, not police officers. She also didnโt mention anything else the two talked about.
Mattingly got a whole different kind of energy in his interview.
For much of the 40-minute interview, Seelye sat back and listened while Sgt. Jason Vanceโwho wasnโt involved in the shooting but was, for some reason, present during Mattinglyโs interview and described the officersโ approach as โthe most passive way in to serve the warrantโโtold Mattingly that he didnโt want to put words in his mouth...then proceeded to put words in his mouth.
On the audio of the interview, as Seelye listens, Sgt. Vance steers Mattingly through the moments of the shooting, at times suggesting answers.
Vance asks Mattingly if he immediately dropped to the ground after Walker shot him in the leg. Mattingly says no โ he fired four times at Walker, backed out of the apartment, fired twice more, then โgot out of the game,โ he says.
โThatโs kind of like what I was getting to because of your positioning, you know, initially when youโre shot โ and then rightfully so, youโre returning fire,โ says Vance.
โMm-hmm,โ Mattingly responds.
โBut you know you just said you made a conscious decision, you know, โIโm now injured I need to move, so they can protect themselves and me as well,โโ says Vance. โAnd then โ I donโt want to put words in your mouth ...โ
โNo, thatโs it,โ says Mattingly.
Vance also offers that the apartmentโs layout made it a โdifficultโ location.
โYouโve got to nearly 20 years of police experience, would you, would you say that the positioning of that apartment, made it extremely difficult?โ asks Vance.
Mattingly replies, โIt wasnโt ideal.โ
So basically, one interviewee gets his hand held, while the other gets railroaded.
Anyway, on Wednesday, Taylorโs sister Juniyah Palmer shared on Instagram a video taken by a neighbor that shows Walkerโs arrest. According to the Courier-Journal, itโs one of the first videos connected to the shooting that has been revealed to the public.
โOkay, since the police only wanted to share a small clip of what really happened in those moments ill share the full clip!โ Palmer wrote in the post. โLetโs talk about how Kenny is following orders but literally EVERY officer has their guns pointed at him! Racism is really spelt [sic] LMPD.โ
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