For the first time, one of the police officers involved in the shooting of Breonna Taylor is speaking out. Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly was interviewed by ABC News and the Louisville Courier-Journal. He insisted Taylor’s death had “nothing to do with race.”
“Because this is not relatable to George Floyd. This is nothing like that. It’s not Ahmaud Arbery. It’s nothing like it. These are two totally different types of incidences. It’s not a race thing like people wanna try to make it to be. It’s not. This is not us going, hunting somebody down. This is not kneeling on a neck. It’s nothing like that.”
The Courier-Journal writes:
The sergeant at the center of the controversial March 13 shooting said the public anger, protests and vitriol surrounding the case could have been mitigated had Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer’s office and police officials more quickly corrected misinformation.
Instead, they were silent, Mattingly said.
“It’s been excruciating,” he said. “When you have the truth right there in your hands and everything else is getting crammed around you, it’s frustrating.”
Mattingly, who isn’t facing any charges related to the incident says only one officer involved in the incident has a body camera on and it was turned off. He says if it had been on, this would have all been clear. According to ABC News:
Mattingly says Taylor’s boyfriend, 27-year-old Kenneth Walker, shot him in the leg when police barged into the apartment. An FBI ballistics report confirmed Mattingly was shot by Walker.
Walker, a licensed gun owner, told investigators he fired because he didn’t know who entered the residence. Walker initially was charged with attempted murder of a police officer following the incident, but those charges have since been dropped.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, a judge ruled jurors could speak about the grand jury proceedings on the case. The Associated Press reports that one juror, who remains anonymous said “the jury was not given the option to consider charges connected to Taylor’s shooting death by police.” The attorney for Taylor’s family is now asking for an independent prosecutor to be assigned to look into the case.
Watch more from ABC News above.