Judge: Kenneth Walker responsible for the death of Breonna Taylor

A federal judge ruled that actions by Breonna Taylor's then-boyfriend Kenneth Walker led to her death after he fired at police during a botched raid in 2020, according to a new ruling that reduced charges against two former Louisville Metro Police officers in connection with the fatal shooting.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Charles Simpson III dismissed criminal mischief charges against former Detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sergeant Kyle Meany in a ruling Thursday. The two were charged in federal court in August 2022 with preparing and approving an affidavit for a search warrant when, investigators allege, they knew the affidavit contained false and misleading statements, omitted key facts and was not supported by a reasonable suspicion of a crime.

Walker and Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician, were in their South End apartment when plainclothes police officers fatally shot them at 12:40 a.m. on March 13, 2020, as part of a drug investigation while attempting to execute a search warrant.

As an officer broke down the apartment door, Walker – who said he thought a burglar was breaking in – fired a single shot from a handgun, striking Sergeant Jonathan Mattingly in the leg. LMPD officers responded with 32 shots, several of which struck and killed Taylor.

No drugs were found in her apartment.

Simpson concluded that Walker's decision to shoot at police was the catalyst for Taylor's death, overturning officers' testimony on an arrest warrant that prosecutors said contained false information.

Prosecutors must prove that the officers' intrusion was the actual cause of death and also the proximate cause of death, meaning that her death was “the natural and probable consequence” of what happened. Attorneys for Jaynes and Meany argued that Walker's decision to shoot the officers interfered with the natural course of events and should therefore absolve her of “criminal responsibility for Taylor's death.”

Simpson agreed. In the ruling, Simpson wrote that Walker's decision to shoot the police officers was the “legal cause of death,” even though he did not know that the people who had entered the apartment were police officers.

While prosecutors argued the fatal shooting “involved the use of a dangerous weapon and resulted in Taylor's death,” the judge ruled that officers used their weapons to return fire on Walker, not to “facilitate, encourage or assist the search itself.”

Although the prosecution argued that the police officers had drawn their weapons during the intrusion, the judge stated that the purpose was “self-defense” and not to facilitate the allegedly unlawful search.

More:Major federal charges against former LMPD officers dropped after arrest warrant for Breonna Taylor

Walker was charged with assault and attempted murder of a police officer immediately after the shooting, but those charges were ultimately dropped in March 2021.

Judge: Kenneth Walker responsible for the death of Breonna Taylor

You may also like...

Recent Posts

Judge: Kenneth Walker responsible for the death of Breonna Taylor

You may also like...

iPhone 16, new Apple Watch 10 expected

Water break in Dorchester disrupts MBTA Red Line operations

Israel's vegetable prices soar while relations between Turkey and Jordan are strained: What we know

Recent Posts