City Paying $12M To Settle Breonna Taylor Lawsuit

Louisville, KY – City officials have agreed to pay the family of Breonna Taylor $12 million and promised to institute police reforms in order to settle the wrongful death lawsuit against the city.

Sources told The New York Times that the formal announcement would be made on Tuesday.

The settlement is the highest awarded in an officer-involved death in recent years.

The agreement that was reached also required the city of Louisville to implement a number of changes in its policing, The New York Times reported.

The city has agreed to more carefully scrutinize search warrant execution and make a number of commonly-accepted practices mandatory.

Many called the settlement an attempt by city officials to quell the civil unrest that has plagued the city since Taylor was killed during the March 13 execution of a “no-knock” search warrant on her home by members of Louisville Metropolitan Police Department’s (LMPD) Criminal Interdiction Division.

The plan was to serve the search warrant at the same time other members of the Criminal Interdiction Division were serving an arrest warrant for Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover, at his home on Elliott Avenue, 10 miles away, the Courier-Journal reported.

LMPD suspected Glover had been selling drugs out of his residence on Elliott Avenue but using Taylor’s address to receive mail, store drugs, or stash money he made selling drugs.

Leaked investigative documents revealed jailhouse phone conversations that proved Taylor was managing Glover’s money for him while he was incarcerated on drug charges.

LMPD Detective Joshua Jaynes said in an affidavit summarizing the investigation for the warrants that officers had seen Glover go into Taylor apartment in January and leave with a “suspected USPS package in his right hand.”

The affidavit said Glover went from Taylor’s apartment to a “known drug house” on Muhammad Ali Boulevard, the Courier-Journal reported.

Det. Jaynes said he was able to verify through the U.S. Postal Service that Glover had in fact been receiving packages at Taylor’s address.

“Affiant knows through training and experience that it is not uncommon for drug traffickers to receive mail packages at different locations to avoid detection from law enforcement,” he wrote in the affidavit, according to the Courier-Journal.

But officers reported seeing Taylor’s vehicle parked in front of Glover’s home on Elliott Avenue multiple times in 2020, and said that as of February, Glover was listing Taylor’s apartment as his “current home address,” the Courier-Journal reported.

LMPD Lieutenant Ted Eidem, the commander of the Public Integrity Unit, said three plainclothes detectives served the narcotics investigation’s “no-knock” search warrant at 12:40 a.m. on March 13.

A “no-knock” warrant means police are not required to wait before entering a property.

However, Lt. Eidem said the LMPD detectives who served the warrant at Taylor’s apartment knocked and announced themselves anyway.

“Officers knocked on the door several times and announced their presence as police who were there with a search warrant,” he told reporters at a press conference the afternoon of March 13. “The officers forced entry into the exterior door and were immediately met by gunfire. Sergeant [John] Mattingly sustained a gunshot wound and returned fire.”

Lt. Eidem said the other two detectives with Sgt. Mattingly also returned fire.

“The other officers were able to move Sgt. Mattingly and themselves to safety,” he explained. “The officers then gave verbal commands and the man later identified as Kenneth Walker exited the residence and surrendered to officers.”

Lt. Eidem said officers found Taylor unresponsive inside the apartment. She died from multiple gunshot wounds.

Records showed that police who served the arrest warrant on Glover at the Elliott Avenue address at about the same time recovered “several ounces of suspected crack cocaine, marijuana, and U.S. currency,” the Courier-Journal reported.

His attorney has said that he didn’t know the men entering the apartment were police officers when he shot at them.

Walker has filed a lawsuit against the police department claiming he was protected from prosecution under the state’s Stand Your Ground law, TMZ reported.

The civil lawsuit filed by Walker asked the judge to give him immunity from prosecution for firing what he called a single “warning shot” after officer’s rammed Taylor’s door.

Walker’s “warning shot” prompted the officers on the other side of the door to return fire, and Taylor was shot five times, WAVE reported.

Police arrested Walker and charged him with the attempted murder of Louisville Metropolitan Police Sergeant Jonathan Mattingly.

Investigators said Sgt. Mattingly was struck in the femoral artery in his thigh by Walker’s bullet, TMZ reported.

But Jefferson County Commonwealth Attorney Tom Wine dropped the attempted murder charge against Walker in May without prejudice, WAVE reported.

That means prosecutors can recharge Walker for the same crime at a later date.

The lawsuit Walker filed on Sept. 1 claimed he was interrogated by police after the shootings and then was illegally arrested, detained, charged, and prosecuted, according to TMZ.

His attorney, Steve Romines, claimed that Sgt. Mattingly may not have been shot by Walker, WAVE reported.

“[There were] two volleys of gunfire that night, and they were about a minute and eight seconds apart,” Romines said. “It was not reported that an officer was shot until after the second volley of gunshots… Until we see the ballistics report, we think it is much more likely that one of the 35-to-45 shots fired by LMPD is what struck Officer Mattingly.”