Louisville police executed a warrant to search Breonna Taylor’s home on Wednesday, March 13, 2020. Approximately one minute after the police first announced themselves six times with “police, we have a warrant!” the door was breached, and Sgt. John Mattingly crossed a threshold. He saw two people about 25 yards away in the dark hallway.
With just the glint of light from a TV and the lights from their handguns’ muzzles, the next thing he saw was a flash from a handgun, and he was struck in a femoral artery. Mattingly lowered his weapon and began firing at other officers. Mattingly was being threatened by Kenneth Walker. Twenty-year-veteran Sgt. Mattingly was clearly bleeding. The lieutenant quickly grabbed Mattingly’s police vest and led him away from the doorway. It took 12 seconds for him to be grabbed by the fellow officer from the moment he opened the door.
Mattingly’s newly released book, detailing what really happened on March 13, 2020, is titled: “12 Seconds In The Dark.”
The book begins with Mattingly recounting a “day in his life”: investigating a murder, and then receiving a call about a gunshot fired. He and other officers investigate, not knowing if there’s a shooter waiting in ambush. Knowing nothing, they declared themselves police at the door.
On the Taylor raid, Mattingly had no “connection” with the people and places named in the warrant. Mattingly had offered to serve the warrant. Why, then, after serving “over 2,000” standard warrants, would Mattingly suddenly decide that, on this case which he had no personal investment in, he and six other cops would suddenly breach a door without announcing (as required by the warrant)? This incongruity can be a starting point.
It won’t surprise anyone that Mattingly’s painstaking review of the facts will not match the hyperbolic, false narrative developed days later, and repeated ad nauseum by celebrities, athletes, and politicians. LeBron James sent numerous tweets to millions of his followers suggesting that Taylor had been murdered by rogue police officers on a warrant. The media cast the cops as cowboys–working on a no-knock warrant–who busted down the door and started shooting, killing Taylor in her bed.
Oprah is more popular than LeBron James. She continues to refer to Breonna Taylor as an “award-winning EMT.” No, she wasn’t. Taylor was fired as an EMT and placed on the “do not rehire” list. This isn’t “victim shaming;” its simply relaying a fact, as opposed to a lie meant to build a false story.
The Vice President was referring to those cops as murderers. She’s never retracted that claim.
Those lies, repeated by Oprah and Lebron James, to name just a few, have fueled red-hot hate and subjected Mattingly to constant death threats–including threats to kidnap, torture, and murder his family.
Breonna Taylor’s death was tragic. Mattingly regrets Breonna Taylor’s passing, as it was totally unnecessary.
The bandwagon of lies includes that Kenneth Walker called 911 and reported that he didn’t know who shot Taylor, but leaves out that he called his mother before dialing 911 to tell his mother that that cops were there. It included omissions like claiming that 12 witnesses didn’t hear the cops announce themselves, then failing to report that some of those “witnesses” lived two buildings away, and couldn’t have heard anything. Or that after Taylor had died of her wounds, likely because Walker wouldn’t just surrender, then he obscenely blaming Taylor for firing the shot that struck Mattingly. Or finally, the well heeled, “the cops didn’t find any drugs or money” at Taylor’s apartment canard. That’s true – and only true because when investigators wanted to return to Taylor’s place to execute the search warrant, permission was denied. All of this is detailed on Mattingly’s book.
Mattingly admitted that mistakes were made. Mattingly regrets not waiting for the right time and giving six warnings to ensure that no door was opened. He was not responsible for the huge, after-the fact mistakes.
As a former trial lawyer, I am familiar with facts. Mattingly’s fact are compelling. Mattingly gives a compelling picture. He presents solid evidence that confirms Mattingly’s conclusion. The common narrative about Breonna Taylor’s death is a lie.
His book was set to be published by Simon & Schuster, but the publishing house took the coward’s path and backed out.
“12 Seconds In The Dark” is published by the Daily Wire’s new publishing arm. They deserve congratulations. Mattingly’s book is well worth the read.
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