VOX
Darron Cummings/AP
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron released 15 hours of audio from the grand jury deliberations in the Breonna Taylor case on Friday, after a juror’s request for the recordings to be released was granted by a judge. [Louisville Courier-Journal / Sarah Ladd]
Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman from Louisville, was shot and killed by police at her apartment in March. But on September 23, Cameron announced that no charges would be brought against the officers for Taylor’s death. Officer Brett Hankison was charged with wanton endangerment. [CNN / Christina Carrega and Delano Massey]
The juror who requested the files said Cameron did not give the grand jury the opportunity to bring any homicide charges. Cameron’s office confirmed last week that the only charge he recommended was the wanton endangerment charge for firing into a neighboring apartment. [Vox / Fabiola Cineas]
“The full story and absolute truth of how this matter was handled from beginning to end is now an issue of great public interest and has become a large part of the discussion of public trust throughout the country,” the juror’s request said. [NPR / Bill Chappell]
The recordings revealed that the police officers said they announced their presence multiple times before entering Taylor’s apartment. The grand jury investigation determined that detective Myles Cosgrove fired 16 of the 32 shots in the apartment, including one that killed Taylor. [AP / Dylan Lovan and Piper Hudspeth Blackburn]
Mattingly testified in March that he and other officers knocked on the door “six or seven” times without receiving a response before forcing their way in. Mattingly also said the officers mistakenly believed Taylor was alone in the apartment. [CNN / Ray Sanchez, Elizabeth Joseph, and Nicole Chavez]
According to the audio, Hankison fired shots because he thought his colleagues were being “executed.” Hankison said he saw someone in the apartment hallway holding an AR-15 rifle, but Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker was only found with a 9mm handgun at the scene. [CNN / Lauren del Valle and Nicole Chavez]
Walker, meanwhile, offered a different version of events. He said in the audio that he was “scared to death” when he heard knocking, and although the police said they identified themselves, Walker said he and Taylor got no response after asking who was there. [NYT / Will Wright, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, and John Eligon]All but one of the neighbors interviewed said they never heard the officers identify themselves. But Cameron said in a statement that “I’m confident that once the public listens to the recordings, they will see that our team presented a thorough case to the Jefferson County grand jury.” [USA Today / N’dea Yancey-Bragg, Tessa Duvall, Darcy Costello, and Joel Shannon]