Kenneth Walker, who was Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend, filed a federal lawsuit against the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) and officers involved in executing the no-touch order that resulted in Taylor’s death , alleging that his constitutional rights were violated during the raid.
CNN obtained a copy of Walker’s lawsuit and reported that his lawyers allege that officers violated their Fourth Amendment rights when they executed a search warrant last March.
They also allege that the same order was based on false claims, that the raid was done unnecessarily at night, that officers did not announce that they were police officers, and that officers responded with excessive force.
The lawsuit also accuses officers of failing to coordinate with the Louisville Metro Police SWAT team, which reportedly usually send search orders without a hitch. He criticizes the LMPD for regularly allowing officers to carry out search orders at night, alleging that the execution of search orders at night “predictably leads to dangerous situations in which search targets confuse police with the intruders “.
“We are trying to ensure that there is justice and accountability for the tragic and unjustified police assault on Kenneth Walker and the murder of Breonna Taylor at her home in the middle of the night,” said Georgetown University Law Center professor , Cliff Sloan, who is one of the lawyers representing Walker, told CNN in a statement.
Police executed a search warrant on March 13, 2020 in the apartment that Walker and Taylor shared while the couple was sleeping. Walker, thinking the agents were intruders, fired a shot at the front door and knocked Sergeant. Jonathan Mattingly in bed. Police officers shot back and killed Taylor.
Walker was charged with assault and attempted murder of a police officer. The charges were dismissed with prejudice last week, preventing him from being charged with the incident.
In September, officials announced that none of the agents involved in the raid – Myles Cosgrove, Brett Hankison and Mattingly – would be charged with Taylor’s death. Hankinson was charged with three misdemeanors for several bullets that penetrated a wall and broke into a neighboring apartment.
Grand Anonymous jurors later said Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron (R) never recommended charges for murder and that the jury was never allowed to consider those charges against officers.