Jonathan Mattingly, one of the three Louisville police officers involved in the shooting of Breonna Taylor in March, has filed a civil lawsuit against Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, for the "severe trauma, mental anguish and emotional distress" Walker caused him the night of Taylor’s death, and in the months that have followed.
Having obtained a no-knock search warrant, LMPD officers Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove, barged into Taylor’s home on March 13th, 2020, while Taylor and Walker were asleep, in what has since been described as a “botched raid.” The raid was part of an ongoing drug investigation, in which the officers wrongly suspected Taylor was a part of. Thinking that the officers were intruders, Walker, a licensed gun owner, allegedly shot Mattingly in the leg, prompting the police officers to open fire with 32 shots of their own, six of which hit Taylor.
The lawsuit reads, "Walker's conduct in shooting Mattingly is outrageous, intolerable, and offends all accepted standards of decency and morality."
After being initially charged and arrested for attempted murder, the charges were dismissed and Walker was released, seeking protection under Kentucky’s “Stand Your Ground” law, which offers immunity from civil and criminal law for any person who uses a gun in self-defense.
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Walker’s attorney responded to Mattingly’s suit, calling it a "baseless attempt to further victimize and harass Kenny."
In a statement obtained by CBS News, attorney Steve Romines said, "Kenny Walker is protected by law under KRS 503.085 and is immune from both criminal prosecution and civil liability as he was acting in self-defense in his own home.”
Earlier this month in an interview with Gayle King for CBS This Morning, Walker revealed that on the day of the shooting, a LMPD officer said to him that it was “unfortunate” that he was not also shot. In a different CBS This Morning interview with Gayle King, two grand jurors for Taylor’s case called the actions of the police that day “criminal” and “negligent.”
