The lawsuit stems from the failed intrusion into Taylor’s apartment on March 13, 2020. Walker, thinking the cops were intruders, fired a shot when the cops broke down the door, hitting the sergeant. John Mattingly on the leg, officials said. The officers responded with a volley of gunfire throughout the apartment, killing Taylor and, according to a statement from the state prosecutor’s office, almost hitting a family in another apartment.
Walker was arrested and charged with shooting a police officer, but those charges were initially dismissed last year and then dismissed with prejudice, or permanently, last week.
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky on Friday, Walker’s lawyers claim in the lawsuit that LMPD officers violated Walker’s Fourth Amendment rights when they executed the search warrant at Taylor’s residence.
The lawsuit alleges that the warrant was based on fabricated claims; the attack was conducted unnecessarily in the middle of the night; the policemen did not announce that they were policemen; and the officers responded with excessive force. The suit also alleges that the officers who carried out the operation did not agree with the Louisville Metropolitan Police SWAT team, which, according to the suit, normally handles raids without detonation.
In addition, the lawsuit raises broader criticisms of the LMPD, saying it allows police officers to execute nightly search warrants and does so routinely “regardless of circumstances”. The lawsuit alleges that night search warrants “predictably lead to dangerous situations in which search targets mistake the police for intruders”.
LMPD said it does not comment on pending litigation. However, police officers involved in the operation told investigators that they knocked repeatedly and announced themselves before bursting through the front door with a battering ram.
Cliff Sloan, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, one of the lawyers representing Walker, told CNN in a statement on Saturday that the lawsuit is important for claiming Walker’s rights.
“We are seeking to ensure that there is justice and accountability for the tragic and unjustified police attack on Kenneth Walker and for the murder of Breonna Taylor at his home in the middle of the night,” he said.
Taylor’s death sparked widespread protests against ways the police and criminal justice system can devalue blacks’ lives. His death also generated a broader recognition of the dangers of forced entry invasions, both for the occupants of a home and for the police. The Louisville Metro Council unanimously approved the “Breonna Law” last June, which prohibits search warrants without detection.
No police officers involved were directly charged with Taylor’s death. Former detective Brett Hankison, one of the officers who opened fire on the night of the attack, was charged with three counts of first-degree extinction risk for allegedly shooting blindly into the apartment, endangering a neighboring family of three, according to with a September 2020 statement from Attorney General Daniel Cameron. He pleaded not guilty.
Joshua Jaynes, who had written the search warrant for the operation, was fired in January. His lawyer said he planned to appeal the termination. Another detective involved in the operation, Myles Cosgrove, was also fired in January.
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