New Video and Audio Footage Connected to the Killing of Breonna Taylor Revealed for First Time

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 Talyorโ€™s death shows drastic differences between how one of the officers involved in the shooting was questioned and how Kenneth Walkerโ€”Taylorโ€™s boyfriend who was arrested at…

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 Talyorโ€™s death shows drastic differences between how one of the officers involved in the shooting was questioned and how Kenneth Walkerโ€”Taylorโ€™s boyfriend who was arrested at the sceneโ€”was handled in questioning. Thereโ€™s also new footage showing Walkerโ€™s arrest that night, taken from a neighborโ€™s camera phone and shared publicly by Taylorโ€™s sister.

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Walkerโ€™s attorneys provided NBC News with audio from two interviews conducted by investigators. One audio file is of Walkerโ€™s interview, the other is that of Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, who was shot in the leg during the raid on Taylorโ€™s apartment.

The first thing that should raise eyebrows is the timing of each interview. According to NBC, Mattinglyโ€™s interview wasnโ€™t 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 โ€œinternal affairs.โ€

โ€œWe investigate officer-involved shootings,โ€ Seelye says. โ€œWeโ€™re here just to try to find out what happened.โ€

โ€œIโ€™m scared about what to say,โ€ Walker says.

She encourages him to sign the Miranda rights waiver and talk.

โ€œIt 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. Heโ€™s 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.

โ€œItโ€™s the middle of the night,โ€ he said. โ€œSomebody is beating on the door and not saying who they are...What are you going to do?

โ€œI know yโ€™all have guns at home. Youโ€™re going to grab it and be cautious like, โ€˜Okay, so whatโ€™s going on?โ€™ Youโ€™re creeping towards (the door)...โ€˜Who is it? Who is it?โ€™ You donโ€™t 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 โ€œโ€˜Iโ€™m going to let this dog on you, youโ€™re going to jail for the rest of your life.โ€

He also said the officer asked, โ€œโ€˜Did you get hit by any bullets? And Iโ€™m like, โ€˜No.โ€™ He said, โ€˜Oh, thatโ€™s unfortunate.โ€™โ€

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 โ€œmisunderstanding.โ€

โ€œWhyโ€™d he say to me that there was a misunderstanding?โ€ he asked Seelye.

โ€œI donโ€™t know,โ€ Seelye responded. โ€œThatโ€™s some new information for us as well.โ€

โ€œโ€™Iโ€™m not an idiot,โ€ Walker said. โ€œThey 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 doesnโ€™t mention that Walker told her he thought they were intruders, not police officers. She also didnโ€™t 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 Vanceโ€”who wasnโ€™t involved in the shooting but was, for some reason, present during Mattinglyโ€™s interview and described the officersโ€™ approach as โ€œthe most passive way in to serve the warrantโ€โ€”told Mattingly that he didnโ€™t 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 โ€œgot out of the game,โ€ he says.

โ€œThatโ€™s kind of like what I was getting to because of your positioning, you know, initially when youโ€™re shot โ€” and then rightfully so, youโ€™re returning fire,โ€ says Vance.

โ€œMm-hmm,โ€ Mattingly responds.

โ€œBut you know you just said you made a conscious decision, you know, โ€˜Iโ€™m now injured I need to move, so they can protect themselves and me as well,โ€™โ€ says Vance. โ€œAnd then โ€” I donโ€™t want to put words in your mouth ...โ€

โ€œNo, thatโ€™s it,โ€ says Mattingly.

Vance also offers that the apartmentโ€™s layout made it a โ€œdifficultโ€ location.

โ€œYouโ€™ve 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, โ€œIt wasnโ€™t ideal.โ€

So basically, one interviewee gets his hand held, while the other gets railroaded.

Anyway, on Wednesday, Taylorโ€™s sister Juniyah Palmer shared on Instagram a video taken by a neighbor that shows Walkerโ€™s arrest. According to the Courier-Journal, itโ€™s one of the first videos connected to the shooting that has been revealed to the public.

โ€œOkay, 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. โ€œLetโ€™s 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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