by LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Lawyers for Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend, who shot at police as he walked through the door the night Taylor was killed, concluded two lawsuits against the city of Louisville on Monday.
One of its attorneys, Steve Romines, said in a statement that the city has agreed to pay $2 million to settle lawsuits filed by Kenneth Walker in federal and state courts. He added that Taylor’s death “will haunt Kenny for the rest of his life.”
“She will live with the repercussions of being harmed by a false arrest warrant, being the victim of multiple gunshots, and suffering the unimaginable and horrific death of Breonna Taylor,” Romines said.
Walker and Taylor were put to bed at night when they were woken by a knock on the apartment door at midnight on March 13, 2020. The police were out on a drug warrant and they used a ram to break the door. Walker fired a single shot from the pistol and hit Sergeant. John Mattingly on the leg. Mattingly and two other officers then opened fire, killing Taylor.
The case drew attention to the issue of “don’t knock” permits, which allowed law enforcement to enter a home without notifying them of their presence, and prompted a re-examination of the practice.
Walker was initially charged with attempted murder of a police officer, but charges against him were eventually dropped as protests and news media attention to the Taylor case intensified in the spring of 2020.
Walker told investigators that he didn’t know the police were at the door and thought an intruder was trying to break in.
Earlier this year, US Department of Justice prosecutors charged three Louisville officers with conspiracy to falsify the Taylor order. Kelly Goodlett, now one of the former officers, pleaded guilty and admitted that she helped make a false connection between Taylor and a wanted drug dealer.
In an opinion piece published in the Washington Post in August, Walker wrote that a police officer “finally took some responsibility for my girlfriend’s death.”
“Knowing all the problems this failed crackdown would create, the Louisville police tried to use me as a scapegoat to deflect crime,” he wrote. “It almost worked.”
Two other former police officers involved in the search warrant, Joshua Jaynes and Kyle Meany, are scheduled to face trial in federal court next year.
The city of Louisville made a $12 million payment to Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, in September 2020.
Part of the deal he received will be used to set up a scholarship fund for law school students interested in enforcing civil rights law, Walker’s lawyers said Monday. Another portion will be donated to the Center for Innovations in Community Safety, a police and community reform Center at Georgetown Law School.
