HE SAID, SHE SHOT
Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend ‘said SHE shot first’ before changing his story, grand Jury tapes reveal
BREONNA TAYLOR's boyfriend said she fired at cops first when they entered her apartment, fired Kentucky officer Brett Hankison has claimed in newly released grand jury testimony.
Hankison boyfriend, , initially told cops she shot at officers as they into her apartment.
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Nearly 20 hours of audio from on Friday, including interviews with in March discussing how he and two other the 26-year-old EMT in Louisville.
"She was the one who shot at us," Hankison is heard saying when repeating what Walker told him following the shooting.
Walker later confessed .
Investigators were told by a neighbor that police said on the night of the shooting "some drug-dealing girl shot an officer."
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Louisville officers carried out a no-knock raid on Taylor's apartment on March 13 that resulted in the fatal shooting.
Although police claim to have knocked on the door several times, Taylor's neighbors and Walker say they didn't hear anything.
Walker then fired a warning shot out the door, prompting officers to return fire, killing Taylor.
Hankison told investigators he saw "intense fire" that was "lighting up the room." He also told them although he was wearing a vest, "there is no way we can challenge this guy with an assault rifle."
The officer's interviews were made public by a court following the , which reignited protests across the country.
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following the shooting and was charged with wanton endangerment, not for shooting Taylor but for firing shots that entered a neighboring apartment.
The material that was released does not include juror deliberations or prosecutor recommendations and statements.
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who did not recommend homicide charges and whose office conducted the investigation, said none were recorded.
Other released audio including testimonies from Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove, the two other officers involved in Taylor's shooting, also claiming they knocked and identified themselves before ramming into Taylor's apartment.
"We knocked on the door, said police, waited I don't know 10 or 15 seconds. Knocked again, said police, waited even longer," Louisville Lieutenant Shawn Hoover, who was present at the raid, said in an interview the day of Taylor's shooting.
"So it was the third time that we were approaching, it had been like 45 seconds if not a minute," Hoover said. "And then I said, 'Let's go, let's breach it'."
Police and Cameron maintain they identified themselves prior to using a battering ram that subsequently forced Walker to fire his weapon.
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However, Walker said that had he known there were police behind the door, "it changes the whole situation because there was nothing for us to be scared of."
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"Were drugs money or paraphernalia recovered from apartment 4?" a law enforcement officer said regarding the warrant. "The answer to that is no," the officer said in the interview.
"They didn't go forward with executing the initial search warrant that they had for Breonna Taylor's apartment," the law enforcement officer said.
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