Ex-LMPD officer shot during Breonna Taylor raid describes '12 Seconds in the Dark'

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Wounded in the raid that killed Breonna Taylor two years ago, former Louisville Metro Police Sgt. John Mattingly said he’s fully recovered and full of forgiveness for the man who shot him.

Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired one shot into Mattingly’s leg when officers served a warrant and rammed their way into her apartment on March 13, 2020. Mattingly said after officers knocked and announced on six different occasions over 45 seconds, the cop inside of him said that Walker knew it was police coming through the door.

But Mattingly admits that Walker might not have heard or thought it could’ve been robbers acting like they were the police and he had no problem with all charges against Walker being dropped. Walker has said after hearing a loud boom at the door, he asked who it was and heard no response. Thinking they were being robbed, he grabbed his gun.

"I don’t hold that against Kenneth Walker," Mattingly said. "No. 1, I’ve put that away a long time ago. I don’t have any disdain for him. I might feel different if I was paralyzed or something, but God protected me enough to put me in a position where I could forgive and move on."

As for his feelings toward Breonna's family, he said this: "One day, I hope they can find that forgiveness in their heart. It’ll never ease the grief, but I hope they can find that."

Mattingly was on the team of officers serving a warrant on March 13, 2020, as officers set out to serve a total of five warrants across the city. They were all connected to a drug case involving Taylor’s former boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover.

A no-knock warrant was changed before the team headed out that night because they thought Taylor was alone in her apartment, and they thought they wouldn’t bash the door in but knock and announce.

"In my mind, I was thinking this is going to be pretty cut and dried, simple. Knock. Hope somebody comes to the door. We do a simple search and find what we need and move on," Mattingly recalled.

But no one came to the door.

When officers knocked the door open, Mattingly took a shot to the leg.

"I thought I’ve gotta get off my feet because I knew it was my femoral (artery) instantly. Just the amount of blood in it. I instantly thought I gotta get off my feet because I was gonna pump it out."

As Mattingly was on the ground bleeding, Taylor died when officers unleashed 32 rounds in response to Mattingly getting shot.

It all happened in 12 seconds.

BREONNA TAYLOR LMPD Shooting

"I think she tried to follow him (Walker) into the room where he jumped behind a wall and unfortunately she caught some crossfire," Mattingly said.

During its investigation, WDRB News uncovered false information on the warrant to go to Taylor’s apartment. The warrant claimed LMPD had confirmed that the Postal Inspector said packages for Jamarcus Glover were delivered to Taylor’s apartment, but that turned out to be untrue.

Mattingly said the packages were labeled to a different Glover, and Detective Joshua Jaynes ended up getting fired over the error. But Mattingly said the warrant was valid without that information.

"The four corners of the warrant were good," Mattingly said. "Even if you take that parcel out, the package, saying the U.S. Postal Service verified it, the four corners of the warrant, there’s enough there still to execute that. If he’d simply said we have pictures of him going into the apartment with nothing and coming out with postal packages and this is indicative of a drug trade for this reason X,Y,Z."

Such pictures do exist, Mattingly said, and he is convinced the warrant was valid without the information.

"One-hundred percent," Mattingly said.

None of the officers had body cameras on that night. Mattingly wishes he could turn back the clock so everyone would have had them.

"The tragedy in all that is, if we would’ve had body cameras on, the department would’ve released it the next day and the facts would’ve been out," Mattingly said.

"But since we didn’t have body cameras on, suddenly we can’t release facts because it will hamper the investigation. And my argument to them was, so you’re going to let the city burn because you don’t want to ... what they told us was, 'If we give the facts on this, it sets precedent for future cases.' Well, who cares about that? You rather the city burn? You rather these small businesses go out?

"We had, what I think in all the protests between police and civilians, we had 12 people shot. One of them died. So all that could've been avoided if just transparency had taken place. Mayor Fischer talks about transparency, transparency, and he’s the worst at it," Mattingly said.

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Mattingly said his family has moved six times since the raid because of death threats. Several times, they were called by the FBI late at night and told to get out of the house.

"We moved out, and once we did that, we never went back to our house just because the threats were so real," he said. "My kids, they had security on them for a little while. There were several instances where somebody would stop by their (older children) house and take pictures and take off, so those things are scary."

Mattingly said he’s starting a company called Resilient Resources to help people in need. Not just people in law enforcement or first responders, but anyone who needs help and feels alone dealing with a difficult situation. Most of his children are grown, but he and his wife and their 7-year-old son now live a couple hours away from Louisville.

His book, called "12 Seconds in the Dark," is now available, giving Mattingly’s account of everything about the raid on Taylor’s apartment and the response of LMPD and city leaders.

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