What we know about Breonna Taylor's boyfriend and why charges against him were dismissed

Louisville Courier Journal

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Breonna Taylor's fatal shooting at the hands of Louisville Metro Police officers has rocketed to national attention because of mounting pressure from activists, attorneys and family members who want to know why she is dead.

But Taylor wasn't alone in her apartment the night police burst in while executing a no-knock search warrant.

Her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, was there with her — and fired a shot when Taylor's apartment door burst open.

Walker's since said he wouldn't have fired if he had known it was police. He told investigators in a recorded interview hours after the shooting that he and Taylor called out asking who was knocking at the door and heard no response.

Police, however, maintain they did announce their presence. And Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who investigated the case as special prosecutor, agreed, based on their statements and a single corroborating witness who had changed his story.

After Walker fired one shot — striking Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in the thigh, according to LMPD — Mattingly and two other officers returned fire. Cameron said his investigation found that Mattingly and detective Myles Cosgrove struck Taylor six times, killing her.

Detective Brett Hankison, who also fired shots, did not hit Taylor, Cameron said. Hankison was indicted Sept. 23 by a grand jury with three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment for bullets that traveled into a neighboring apartment with three residents inside.

He has since pleaded not guilty and is asking to have his August trial moved outside of Jefferson County.

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Walker initially faced criminal charges of attempted murder and assault, but they were dismissed without prejudice on May 22 by Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Wine, who called for additional investigation of the case.

Nearly 10 months later, Wine's office moved to dismiss the charges stemming from March 13 with prejudice, meaning Walker could not be re-charged for that incident. A judge granted that motion on March 8.

On Sept. 1, attorney Steve Romines filed a civil lawsuit on Walker's behalf seeking immunity from prosecution and calling Walker a victim of police misconduct.

Romines also disputes that it was Walker's shot that struck Mattingly in the femoral artery of his left leg.

"We know police are firing wildly from various angles," Romines told The Courier Journal. "The timeline and evidence at the scene is more indicative of (police) actually shooting Mattingly than it is Kenny Walker."

Cameron disputed that theory at his Sept. 23 press conference, arguing that Mattingly was not struck by "friendly fire" from other officers. He said the ballistics report showed the round that struck Mattingly was from a 9 mm handgun. The LMPD officers, however, had "40-caliber handguns."

A ballistics report from Kentucky State Police shows that only one 9 mm bullet and cartridge casing was found at Taylor's apartment. Walker had previously acknowledged firing one shot from his legally owned Glock 9 mm handgun.

At a vigil for Taylor days after the shooting, Taylor's aunt Bianca Austin said "both their lives" were changed by the events.

"I want Kenny to know, we're fighting for you, too," Austin said. "You did not deserve this. … This should've never happened."

Minute by minute:What happened the night police fatally shot Breonna Taylor

Kenneth Walker has been charged with attempted murder of a police officer after Louisville officers burst into his girlfriend's apartment on a search warrant. Walker says he thought intruders were breaking in and he acted in self-defense.

Here's what we know about him:

Who is Kenneth Walker?

Walker, a Louisville native, had dated Taylor for "years."

He was in her apartment the night of the shooting but didn't live there full time. His arrest citation lists a home address in the Iroquois Park neighborhood.

He graduated from Valley High School, where he played football, and attended Western Kentucky University for two years, his father wrote in a sworn affidavit submitted in court documents.

Walker's father, also named Kenneth, says his son was scheduled to start work at the U.S. Postal Service before the shooting. Before that, he'd worked various jobs, including roughly two years spent working for Coca-Cola.

"My son is not a drug dealer," Walker's father said. "Ms. Taylor was not a drug dealer. They both worked and were law-abiding citizens. Had they known police were at the door, they would have let them in immediately and allowed them to search.

"A horrible mistake has been made by police."

Walker told The Courier Journal in October that, without Taylor, it's hard to imagine his future. The two had plans to move in together, get financially stable and have a baby.

He even had plans to use his mother's ring to propose.

"Kenny will forever be family," Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, said.

What happened the night of Taylor's shooting?

Walker fired his Glock 9 mm as officers entered Taylor's apartment.

Police have said his bullet struck Mattingly in the leg, requiring surgery. Mattingly, Hankison and Cosgrove returned fire, expending 32 rounds.

Walker's defense attorney, Rob Eggert, did not contest that the shooting occurred — an arrest citation for Walker says he gave police a sworn statement that night admitting he shot a firearm and was the only one in the apartment to do so — but has said it was self-defense.

Walker said in a recorded police interview hours after Taylor's death that he and Taylor didn't know it was police knocking at the door. That would have changed the "whole situation," he tells investigators.

"The only reason I even had the gun out (was) because we didn't know who it was," he told police. "If we knew who it was, that would have never happened."

Walker's civil suit claims that he was interrogated by LMPD under false pretenses following the shooting, then wrongfully and illegally, arrested, detained, charged and prosecuted.

Police acknowledge using a battering ram, but only after they said they identified themselves.

No drugs were found in the home. And Walker was not named on the search warrant.

Who was Breonna Taylor? What to know about the ER tech shot and killed by police

Why did police have a no-knock warrant?

Taylor was not the main subject of the narcotics investigation that prompted LMPD officers to enter her home, records show, but they did have a search warrant for her and her apartment.

The warrant, signed by Jefferson Circuit Judge Mary Shaw the day before police entered the home after midnight, had a "no-knock" provision, meaning that police could enter Taylor's house without first identifying themselves as law enforcement.

Police were allowed to seek a "no-knock" entry if there is a reasonable suspicion that knocking would be dangerous, futile or inhibit the "effective investigation of the crime," LMPD's policies stated. Metro Council has since banned no-knock search warrants, and jurisdictions across the country are following suit.

In this case, police have said it was necessary because "these drug traffickers have a history of attempting to destroy evidence, have cameras on the location that compromise detectives once an approach to the dwelling is made, and have a history of fleeing from law enforcement."

Taylor had no criminal convictions. Her name and address were included in the search warrant, records show, based on police's belief that one of the narcotics investigation's main suspects, Jamarcus Glover, used her home to receive mail, keep drugs or stash money earned from the sale of drugs.

Detective Joshua Jaynes wrote in an affidavit summarizing the investigation that led to the warrant that Glover was seen walking into Taylor's apartment one January afternoon and left with a "suspected USPS package in his right hand."

The detective also wrote that a white vehicle registered to Taylor was parked in front of a 2424 Elliott Ave., a suspected drug house. He also claimed that Glover used Taylor's apartment's address as his "current home address" as of February 2020.

Jaynes was fired by LMPD in January, for violations of truthfulness and search warrant preparation policies. Interim Chief Yvette Gentry said the warrant he prepared contained information that was "not only inaccurate; it was not truthful."

Why was Walker charged if he acted in self-defense?

While attorneys for Walker and Taylor's family have repeatedly said, based in part on interviews with neighbors, that police did not identify themselves, the police department disputes that.

In Walker's arrest citation, police wrote that "detectives knocked multiple times and announced their presence in an attempt to get occupants to answer the door" before forcing it open.

And in a press conference following the shooting, police officials said officers knocked and identified themselves.

A lawsuit filed by Taylor's family against the three officers in her apartment that night, however, says they entered the home "without announcing themselves."

"While police may claim to have identified themselves, they did not. Mr. Walker and Ms. Taylor again heard a large bang on the door. Again, when they inquired, there was no response that there was police outside. At this point, the door suddenly explodes," Eggert said in a motion.

In a recorded interview with investigators, Mattingly described how he would be the officer knocking on the door of the apartment that night.

"We didn't announce the first couple because our intent was not to hit the door," Mattingly said. "Our intent was to give her plenty of time to come to the door because she was probably there alone."

Walker told investigators that he and Taylor were watching a movie — it was “watching them more than we were watching it,” he said — when they heard a loud bang at the door, scaring both of them.

They both repeatedly yelled "Who is it?" but did not hear a response, he said.

They got out of bed and were going toward the door when it “comes off its hinges” and Walker fired one shot, still unable to see, he told police.

More:'No-knock' searches vs. stand-your-ground laws: A deadly combo in Breonna Taylor shooting

Kenneth Walker was charged with attempted murder of a police officer after shooting at officers who had burst into his girlfriend's apartment on a search warrant. Walker says he thought intruders were breaking in and he acted in self-defense. The charges were dismissed.

Reporters Kala Kachmar and Andy Wolfson contributed to this story. Darcy Costello: 502-582-4834; dcostello@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @dctello. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/darcyc.