The Killing of Breonna Taylor, Part 2

[0] From the New York Times, I'm Michael Bobarro.

[1] This is a daily.

[2] No one said he was a violent crime.

[3] No one said he was.

[4] We have work to do in terms of building trust with the people that we have sworn to serve and protect.

[5] Yesterday, my colleague Rukmini Kalamaki told the story of how police in Louisville, Kentucky ended up at Breonna Taylor's door.

[6] She was coming for everything she wanted this year, 2012.

[7] when he was our year.

[8] Today, what thousands of pages of documents and hours of interviews tell us about the night that she was killed, and whether any of the officers involved will ever be charged.

[9] It's Thursday, September 10th.

[10] Rukmini, I know that this will make for difficult listening for some people, but can you walk me through what you have learned about the night of March 12th?

[11] Yeah.

[12] So leading up to that night, Brianna Taylor had just worked four overnight shifts at the hospital where she was employed as an ER tech.

[13] She was pretty tuckered out and she spent the day with her boyfriend, Kenny Walker.

[14] Literally was just chilling pretty much for the most part of the day.

[15] Later, they went on a date to a steakhouse.

[16] We end up going to Texas Row House.

[17] And they headed home around 9 o 'clock that night.

[18] It was a great day.

[19] And it was a normal day.

[20] Usually they went to his apartment, which was just a few minutes away, where he lived alone.

[21] They didn't go to hers typically because she lived with her little sister and her two -year -old goddaughter who spent several nights a week there.

[22] But that particular night, the night of March 12th, Brianna's sister was on a trip to California.

[23] Her goddaughter was staying with relatives somewhere else.

[24] And so they decided to head home to Brianna's apartment because they knew that they would have the place to themselves.

[25] We went back in the house It was in between Watch a movie And play Uno And we decided to do both According to Kenny's account She baked some cookies She served them with ice cream They played a game of Uno We didn't make it halfway through the Uno game Before she was falling to sleep So And then they turned on Netflix And curled up in bed She just went to sleep And then I was just laying there Then it was about over for me too The movie was watching us What we now know is that while this casual date happened inside her apartment.

[26] Outside her apartment, starting at around 10 p .m., just an hour after Brianna Taylor and Kenny Walker had returned from the Steakhouse, a handful of plain -closed police officers from the Louisville Metro Police Department began circling around the parking lot, surveilling her place in preparation for a coordinated raid that was aiming to gather evidence of what they believed was a criminal drug syndicate run by Jamarcas Glover, Brianna Taylor's ex -boyfriend.

[27] At around 12 .35 a .m., they pulled in one last time, got out of the car, and in their tactical vests, went and lined up in front of apartment four.

[28] And the only thing they noted was the blue glow of the light that was coming from her TV in her bedroom window.

[29] This is Amanda Seeley, Global Metro Police Department.

[30] Public Integrity Unit, also with me is Sergeant Chad Tannel, the PAUU office.

[31] Now, for what happens next at night?

[32] We've spoken to neighbors.

[33] We've gone through police documents.

[34] I am here with, is it your name?

[35] Kenny or Kenneth?

[36] Kenneth.

[37] And we also have the recorded statement that Kenny Walker gave to the police a few hours after the events of that night.

[38] This will be a recorded statement from Sergeant John Mattingly.

[39] And the recorded statement from the officer who led the approach to Brianna Taylor's apartment.

[40] Sergeant, are you where this statement is being video and audio taped?

[41] Yes.

[42] John Mattingly.

[43] How long have you been on the department?

[44] Since June of 2000.

[45] At around 12 .40 a .m., both Kenny and Mattingley say that it all started with a knock on Brianna Taylor's door.

[46] When we all got up in line, I knocked on the door.

[47] It was a loud bang at the door.

[48] Banged on the door.

[49] She pops up out of sleep.

[50] It scared her to death.

[51] Both say they didn't hear any response through the door.

[52] First thing she said, who is it?

[53] No response.

[54] There was a second knock.

[55] Banged on it again, no response.

[56] Another knock at the door.

[57] She's like, who is it?

[58] Loud at the top of her lungs.

[59] No response.

[60] Mattingley says that after their third knock.

[61] At that point, we started announcing ourselves, please, please come the door.

[62] Police have a search warrant.

[63] They began loudly announcing themselves, screaming, police, police, police.

[64] There's another knock at the door.

[65] She's yelling at the top of her lungs, and I am two at this point.

[66] Who is it?

[67] But Kenny says, response.

[68] All they heard was the knocking.

[69] They never heard any voices.

[70] No answer, no anything.

[71] So we're like, what the heck?

[72] And at this point, I'm scared to death.

[73] They're both frightened.

[74] And now we get not putting on clothes.

[75] And in the confusion that happened, Kenny puts on Brianna's pants.

[76] That's how scared and startled they both were.

[77] I was honestly thinking it was because we've been owning off together.

[78] Kenny says to investigators later that what he thought was going on is that the at the door was Brianna's ex -boyfriend.

[79] So it was a guy that she was missing or whatever, but threw out at that time, you know.

[80] He never names the ex -boyfriend, but officials say that his description makes clear that he's referring to DeMarcus Glover.

[81] And he popped up over there once before I was there like a couple months ago.

[82] So that's what I thought was going on.

[83] And that's why he says that he reaches for his gun.

[84] So then I grabbed my gun, which is legal, like I'm licensed to carry, everything.

[85] I've never even fired my gun outside of a range.

[86] And he and Brianna, who are now barefoot but partially addressed, begin to walk outside of their bedroom.

[87] We start walking towards the door to go see who it is.

[88] On the other side of the door...

[89] You kept banging and announcing.

[90] Maddingly and other officers say that at this point, they were banging very loudly, and with every beat, they were screaming, police, police, police, announce yourself, police search warrant.

[91] I probably banged on the door six or seven different time periods.

[92] Probably lasted between 45 seconds in a minute.

[93] Maddingley says that at this point, they feel that they've given Brianna Taylor plenty of time to come to the door.

[94] And at that point, Lieutenant Hoover said, go ahead and hit it.

[95] So I looked at Mike and said, go ahead.

[96] And at this point, they decide that they're going to ram in the door.

[97] So he hits the first time and it hits right on the door handle him.

[98] There's a man who is armed with a battering ram.

[99] He hits the door once.

[100] Didn't move the door.

[101] They hit it a second time.

[102] Second time he hits.

[103] It almost knocks the door open, and I could see a crack in the door leading into the apartment.

[104] So I said, this one's going to go.

[105] And then finally, they punch it through.

[106] So he hit the third time, and as soon as he hit the door came out, and they're yelling, please search warrant, please search warrant.

[107] As soon as I cleared the threshold of the front door, I could see down the hallway, there's a bedroom door on the right, and there's a male and a female.

[108] Now, this is important.

[109] officer madingley claims that as they beat down the door he steps into the apartment through the threshold and he's able to see down a long hallway this is a hallway that's roughly 25 to maybe 30 feet long and immediately what he sees are two human figures and as i turn the doorway he's in a stretched out position with his hands with a gun and as his eyes are adjusting he suddenly realizes that the male figure is standing with his hands facing forward, and in his hands are what looks to be a gun.

[110] And as soon as I clear, he fires, boom.

[111] Now, in Kenny's telling, Kenny and Brianna are walking side by side.

[112] They've just left the bedroom.

[113] They've stepped not even a couple of feet into the hallway.

[114] Then the door comes like off the hinges.

[115] The door comes flying off the hinges.

[116] It's happening fast, like it was like an explosion.

[117] And immediately, As it flew open He aims his gun And he shot right away I just let off one shot He says I go boom Boom It was all in like one motion It was like simultaneous Like boom boom Then all of a sudden There's a whole lot of shots As soon as a shot hit I could feel the heat in my leg And so I just returned fire I got four rounds off Maddingley says that he lets off Immediately And it was like simultaneous It's boom boom boom boom boom boom Four shots I slid back on my butt to get out of the line of fire and then reached around.

[118] I think I got two more off around the corner of the door.

[119] And then two shots after that.

[120] And then I could really fill the blood in my leg.

[121] So I reached down and felt it.

[122] My hand was full blood.

[123] And I yelled at them.

[124] I've been hit my femoral.

[125] He's been hit in what's called the femoral artery.

[126] This is one of the major arteries in your body.

[127] It's a very dangerous wound.

[128] You can bleed out in a matter of minutes if it's not treated.

[129] And the next couple of minutes are just a scene of utter chaos.

[130] One of his colleagues tries to step on the wound.

[131] Another officer takes off his belt to put on a tourniquet.

[132] You hear them on the radio calling for the ambulance.

[133] The ambulance tries to rush to the apartment complex, and the ambulance goes to the wrong entrance.

[134] It hits an entrance that happens to have a gate on it.

[135] So they tell the ambulance, just ram it.

[136] But it doesn't seem to be able to go past the crushed metal.

[137] So at this point, they're trying to get Maddingly.

[138] to the first responders, and he can't walk.

[139] He's basically told to get on top of the trunk as they slowly drive the car towards the ambulance, which is now ensnared in the crushed gate.

[140] He gets in the ambulance, and finally they're able to start taking him to a hospital.

[141] During all of this confusion, a third officer, whose name is Detective Brett Hankinson, who had been in the same formation at the front of the door.

[142] He had left that formation.

[143] He had run back out through the breezeway.

[144] and he had run into the parking lot.

[145] So he's now outside the apartment complex facing Brianna's residence and the other apartments there.

[146] And he begins blindly firing through Brianna's window and her patio door, both of which were covered with blinds.

[147] So he had no way of seeing inside.

[148] The bullets from Brett Hankinson's gun, we believe, are the ones that ripped not just through her apartment, but also through one of the apartments that was in the back, where a young woman who was pregnant and her five -year -old child were asleep in separate bedrooms.

[149] Luckily, the bedrooms where they were sleeping were not in the line of fire and they were not harmed.

[150] So there's just shooting like we're both on the ground.

[151] I didn't know if these shots were there going or stuff, you know, I'm scared.

[152] So I'm like freaking out.

[153] I can't register anything that's going on.

[154] Where did you go then?

[155] I just dropped on the ground like right next to her but where I dropped on the ground, like there's a room to the left when you come out of her room.

[156] So there's a wall right hereish.

[157] Mm -hmm.

[158] Back inside Brianna's apartment, Kenny says that he dropped to the floor and he managed to crawl in his hands and knees into the second bedroom.

[159] And then when all the shots stop, I'm, like, panicking.

[160] She's right there on the ground, like, bleeding, and nobody's coming, and I'm just confused.

[161] and scared, and I feel the same right now.

[162] At that point, he makes three phone calls in quick succession.

[163] I called my mom.

[164] At 1246 a .m., he called his mom.

[165] And I told her that somebody just kicked in the door and shot B. His mom said, can you have to call 911?

[166] My mom's like, call 911 right now, call 911 right now.

[167] At 1247 a .m. 911, operator Harris, where is their emergency?

[168] He finally calls 911.

[169] I don't know what's happening.

[170] Somebody kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend.

[171] Okay.

[172] Where are you located?

[173] I made 3 -003 screenfield drive apartment four.

[174] Oh, my God.

[175] Okay.

[176] How old is your girlfriend?

[177] She's 26.

[178] Oh, my God.

[179] You said 26.

[180] Where was she shot at?

[181] I don't know.

[182] She's on the grill right now.

[183] I don't know.

[184] I don't know.

[185] Is she alert and able to talk to you?

[186] No, she's not.

[187] What's her name, sir?

[188] Oh, my name's there.

[189] You said, hell.

[190] Oh, my God.

[191] And we see from the call logs that that appears to be the first time that police and officials become aware of the fact that there's a young woman who is inside the apartment and that she's seriously wounded.

[192] Then I called.

[193] Brianna's mama, I hung up on 911.

[194] Two minutes after that, at 12 .49 a .m., he calls Tamika Palmer, Brianna Taylor's mom.

[195] And then I told her what just happened and when I was on the phone with her, that's when I kind of realized that it was the police, because now they're yelling like, come out, come out.

[196] We also have cell phone footage from bystanders, from neighbors who had at this point woken up, and they managed to capture Kenny being brought out.

[197] Before I stepped out, I yelled to them.

[198] I'm like, hey, I got my phone in my hand.

[199] Like, I'm unarmed.

[200] Like, you know, so I come out.

[201] They tell him to come up with his hands above his head and walking backwards.

[202] So I'm just to start walking backwards.

[203] I clearly have nothing in my hands, anything.

[204] I'm walking backwards.

[205] has this dog right here barking like three feet behind me, like the dog is going crazy.

[206] And he's like, if you don't get down or something on your knee, I'm doing everything they're asking me too slowly and surely like, I'm like scared to death.

[207] And I told him like I'm scared.

[208] He's weeping and sobbing and crying.

[209] They come and they put the cuffs on me and stuff, and then they're walking me away.

[210] And that was it.

[211] That was the end of everything.

[212] It's only after they've taken Kenny outside of the apartment that the police go inside and see what's happening.

[213] And at this point, Brianna was gone.

[214] We'll be right back.

[215] Bookmeany, given all the documents that you have had access to and reviewed, what do you make of that night, this raid?

[216] I think that we can say, with some confidence that there were a series of things that went wrong.

[217] Let's start with what we know about the raid itself.

[218] We know that the police had a meeting just a few hours before the raid, and they told the officers that were heading to her apartment that she was living alone, that she had no children, no pets, and no boyfriend other than to Marcus Glover.

[219] They got this wrong.

[220] They assumed that she's home alone and that she lives alone.

[221] They don't know anything about her sister.

[222] they don't know anything about her goddaughter, and they don't seem to know anything at all about Kenny.

[223] At that same meeting, the police were told that even though the judge had approved a so -called no -knock warrant, they were going to change it to a knock and announce, meaning that the police have to knock and announce themselves as police officers.

[224] Mattingly then says in a statement that they repeatedly announced themselves, that they screamed out, police, police, police, did you hear them call out and say, I'm police, anything like that?

[225] Of the roughly one dozen people that I spoke to, I found only one neighbor, and it was the man who happened to be immediately on the staircase above Brianna Taylor's apartment, who said that he heard the police announce themselves.

[226] And you're sure you only heard police once.

[227] Police.

[228] Yeah, I hold police.

[229] And he claims that he heard them say it only once.

[230] One time.

[231] Police.

[232] I never once heard them that night, announced them.

[233] There's no identification.

[234] that, oh, we're police officers.

[235] Like, I didn't hear that at all.

[236] Everybody else said that the first thing they heard...

[237] No, they're just...

[238] Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, were the shots.

[239] Plus...

[240] Welcome back to Face the Nation.

[241] We have the actions of Brett Hankinson when he shot blindly into Brianna Taylor's apartment from dozens of feet outside in the parking lot.

[242] I just want to read from a letter that was written to one of the three officers terminated.

[243] It was from the chief of police, to that officer, and it is scathing.

[244] His actions have been denounced by his own department as reckless.

[245] It says Brett Hankinson displayed an extreme indifference to the value of human life when you wantonly and blindly fired 10 rounds into the apartment of Brianna Taylor.

[246] He was fired in June, and in his termination letter, the police chief said that his behavior that night was, quote, a shock to the conscience.

[247] So that's what we know at this point about the rate itself.

[248] But there are other pieces of the puzzle that are.

[249] still missing.

[250] Like what?

[251] This department has withheld some of the most basic information that you typically get to see at this point in an investigation.

[252] We have not seen her autopsy.

[253] The body camera footage of the SWAT team officers who responded to the call have not been released.

[254] And the statements of the other officers at the scene, other than Mattingly, have also been withheld.

[255] And at the same time.

[256] Hello, this is a prepaid collect call from an inmate at Louisville Metropolitan Corrections Department.

[257] Investigators have uncovered more evidence indicating an ongoing relationship between Brianna and Jamarcus Glover.

[258] Hello.

[259] And this specifically came just a few hours after her death in a number of jailhouse calls that Jamarcus made to another woman.

[260] So where your money at?

[261] You see what my money is?

[262] Yeah.

[263] See, what you mean?

[264] Like, Briehead ate like $8 .9.

[265] And I still got money.

[266] In those calls, Jamarcus is trying to make bail to get out of jail.

[267] Bree had $8 a grand of your money?

[268] Yeah.

[269] Does she tell you where it was?

[270] Like a toy.

[271] She didn't get to tell me. No, she's dead.

[272] And he tells that woman that he has left eight and six, eight grand.

[273] and six grand at Brianna Taylor's home.

[274] So $14 ,000 at Brianna Taylor's home.

[275] And he doesn't tell just that woman.

[276] Oh, no, Brie on, Brito, brie don't.

[277] You know how to do it.

[278] He also tells another associate on a different call where they have a discussion about where the money is.

[279] I thought you said if I found some money over there.

[280] Or you just, it was down, it was down.

[281] And Jamarcus says regarding the money at Brianna Taylor's home, it was there, it was there.

[282] it was there.

[283] And so investigators point out that Jamarcus Glover never had any kind of legal employment and they're saying that these thousands of dollars are therefore the proceeds of his drug trade and that she was essentially handling the proceeds of his business for him.

[284] But even if Jamarcus was storing thousands of dollars at Brianna Taylor's apartment, a claim that, by the way, has not been verified, everyone I've spoken to, advocates for her family and officials at the city and state level, agree that that should not have led to this young woman getting killed.

[285] We are outside.

[286] We are outside.

[287] The attorney general's home.

[288] The attorney general's home.

[289] Telling him.

[290] We want justice for home.

[291] In Louisville and around the country, protests calling for justice for Brianna Taylor have been continuing every single day.

[292] And those protests have brought about some change.

[293] The police chief in Louisville was.

[294] forced out.

[295] He resigned.

[296] And just a couple days ago, an African -American female police officer has been named as interim chief.

[297] And finally, after heated protests and emotional pleas, Louisville Mayor Greg Fisher signed Brianna's Law today.

[298] The city council passed something called Brianna's Law, which is a law that makes no -knock search warrants illegal.

[299] Also, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul introducing the Breonna Taylor bill that would ban no -knock warrants.

[300] There's also a movement to make Brianna's law a national law.

[301] Charge the cops.

[302] But the protesters who have been flooding into the streets day in, day out, night after night, have been calling for something very specific.

[303] They're calling for the three officers who opened fire that night to be criminally charged and to be arrested and sent to prison.

[304] In fact, Oprah Winfrey, has erected 26 billboards around Louisville asking for just that.

[305] What the neighbors?

[306] And what I've learned is there are real obstacles to charging those three officers.

[307] And what do you mean by that?

[308] What are those obstacles?

[309] In this case, there aren't a lot of things that people agree on.

[310] But there's consensus on two major points.

[311] One of them is that Kenny shot first.

[312] And under Kentucky law, he has the right to use lethal.

[313] force against somebody entering his home or apartment if he believes that that person is an intruder.

[314] But Kentucky law also protects police officers who are using deadly force in self -defense.

[315] And the legal experts I've talked to say that it's hard to see how Maddingly, who was shot in the leg and his colleague who's standing right next to him, how their actions are not going to be seen as opening fire in self -defense.

[316] The second major point of consensus is that the officer who blindly fired through Brianna Taylor's patio door and the window and the walls of her home from the parking lot outside.

[317] Everybody agrees that he violated department policy and that he most likely acted in a criminal manner.

[318] What I've been told is that if the forensic analysis of the ballistics, of the bullets that were shot that might show that Hankinson's bullets did not harm her, Then, the only charge that he can be charged with under Kentucky law is something called wanton endangerment.

[319] His actions endangered Brianna and others in the neighborhood and his colleagues.

[320] And that's a much lesser charge than what protesters have been calling for.

[321] And while protesters are demanding that these three officers be charged with murder and be arrested and be put away.

[322] Arrest the killers of Brianna.

[323] what officials are telling me is that the charge of murder against any of these three officers is looking unlikely you know i've i've spent months pouring over thousands of pages of legal documents police records call logs i've i've gone through terabytes of data trying to understand what happened to brianna taylor it was in the final couple of days of my reporting that a source handed me her scrapbook.

[324] She was a scrapbooker.

[325] She had a scrapbook where she would cut out little pictures of herself and her friends, her mom, her sister, and she would note down momentous occasions in her life.

[326] And in this scrapbook, there's one specific entry that has really stayed with me. She wrote it on the occasion of her graduation from high school in 2011, And she says, graduating this year on time is so important to me because I'll be the first in my family to accomplish this.

[327] My mother wasn't able to finish high school on time and get her diploma, so I know how much my getting mine means to her.

[328] To have my entire family expecting me to graduate and set a good example for the younger ones is one of the biggest responsibilities I've ever had.

[329] But I refuse to let anyone down, regardless of the amount of pressure I have on my shoulders.

[330] I want to be the one who finally breaks the cycle of my family's educational history.

[331] I want to be the one to finally make a difference.

[332] I want to be the one that everybody can look up to with smiles on their faces, telling me how proud of me they are, the one they can finally say you did it too.

[333] I want that to be me. Brianna, Chiquel, Taylor.

[334] We'll be right back.

[335] Here's what else you need to know today.

[336] Well, I think Bob really, to be honest with you.

[337] Sure, I want you to be.

[338] I wanted to always play it down.

[339] I still like playing it down.

[340] Yes.

[341] Because I don't want to create a panic.

[342] In a series of recorded interviews with the journalist Bob Woodward at the start of the pandemic, President Trump acknowledged that he had knowingly played down the threat of the coronavirus, even though he was aware that it was deadly.

[343] It goes through air, Bob.

[344] That's always tougher than the touch.

[345] You know, the touch, you don't have to touch things, right?

[346] But the air, you just breathe the air, and that's how it's passed.

[347] And so that's a very tricky one.

[348] That's a very delicate one.

[349] It's also more deadly than your, you know, even your strenuous flus.

[350] The recordings from February and March, which were published on Wednesday by the Washington Post, show that Trump was deliberately misleading the public, just as the virus began killing tens of thousands of Americans.

[351] He knew how deadly it was.

[352] It was much more deadly than the flu.

[353] He knew and purposely played it down.

[354] Worse, he lied to the American people.

[355] In response, Trump's Democratic rival, Joe Biden, sharply criticized the president during a campaign stop, saying that Trump, had abdicated his responsibility to protect the public.

[356] He failed to do his job on purpose.

[357] It was a life and death betrayal of the American people.

[358] That's it for the Daily.

[359] I'm Michael Babaro.

[360] See tomorrow.