Breonna Taylor Incident Report Features Glaring Falsehoods

The official police report on the shooting of Breonna Taylor has some rather glaring omissions and falsehoods. According to the Courier-Journal, the report took nearly three months for it to become public after Taylor was killed at her Louisville, Kentucky, home on March 13.

Taylor was shot in her home by three plainclothes officers who used a no-knock search warrant as part of an ongoing narcotics investigation back in March. The report, which was released on Wednesday, is four-pages long and lists the time, date, case number, incident location and Taylor’s full name, Breonna Shaquille Taylor, and the fact that she was a 26-year-old black female. However, it does not include her street number, apartment number or date of birth, despite the fact they’ve been widely reported in the months since her death.

Additionally, the report lists Taylor’s injuries as “none,” despite the fact that she was shot at least eight times. According to the attorney for Taylor’s family, she died in her hallway floor in a pool of her own blood. The charges are listed as “death investigation — LMPD involved” and states there was no “forced entry,” even though the three officers used a battering ram. The death of Taylor, who worked as an EMT, has been a significant focus of the ongoing protests over police brutality, particularly in Louisville.

The “Offenders” portion of the report lists the three officers who fired inside Taylor’s apartment, including Sgt. Jon Mattingly, Myles Cosgrove and Brett Hankison. The three police officers claim they announced their presence prior to entry, but Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, says that wasn’t the case — which is backed up by Taylor’s neighbors. Walker also said he believed intruders were trying to break in, which resulted in him firing a warning shot, which struck Mattingly in the leg.

The trio of officers had been looking for two persons of interest who were suspected of selling controlled substances as part of a drug house. However, the two they were looking for were already in police custody. No drugs were found in Taylor’s apartment, which was reportedly more than 10 miles away from the address listed on their warrant. The FBI announced that they were opening an investigation into Taylor’s death on May 21. Special Agent in Charge Robert Brown said in a statement that “the FBI will collect all available facts and evidence and will ensure that the investigation is conducted in a fair, thorough and impartial manner.”