FBI Louisville Office

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Louisville Field Office has opened an investigation into the shooting death of Breonna Taylor during a Louisville Metro Police Department raid on her apartment in March, according to a statement issued Thursday from FBI Louisville. 

"The FBI will collect all available facts and evidence and will ensure that the investigation is conducted in a fair, thorough and impartial manner," the statement says. "As this is an ongoing investigation, we are not to comment further at this time."

LMPD's investigation into Taylor's death has been turned over to Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron's office for review, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said Wednesday. Cameron's office will determine if any charges will be brought against the officers after Jefferson County Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Wine recused himself from the case. In recusing himself, Wine said his office "is conflicted" because it is prosecuting a case against Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who is charged with attempted murder of a police officer in connection with the incident. 

The investigation will also be reviewed by U.S. Attorney Russell Coleman's office, Fischer said. 

Taylor, 26, was shot and killed on March 13 when LMPD officers Myles Cosgrove, Brett Hankison and Jonathan Mattingly used a battering ram to enter her apartment to serve a search warrant in a drug investigation, according to LMPD's initial report on the incident. 

The officers have said they repeatedly knocked on Taylor's door and announced their presence, according to LMPD's initial report on the incident, but they eventually forced their way into the apartment, where they were met with gunfire.

Walker thought the apartment was being robbed, according to his attorney, and fired at officers when they rushed in, hitting Mattingly in the leg. Police returned fire, and Taylor was shot at least eight times, according to a wrongful death lawsuit her family has filed against the officers. 

In asking a judge to approve a "no-knock" warrant to search Taylor's apartment, officers claimed suspected drug dealer Jamarcus Glover was using the residence to receive packages and keep narcotics or proceeds from drug sales. The request for a no-knock warrant for Taylor's apartment said that "these drug traffickers have a history of attempting to destroy evidence, have cameras on the location that compromise detectives" and have a history of "fleeing from law enforcement."

A U.S. postal inspector in Louisville, however, said his office found "no packages of interest" going to Taylor's residence, according to a recent WDRB News report, and police did not use his office to verify the matter. 

Nothing illegal was found in Taylor's apartment, and Glover had already been taken into custody at his home several miles away, according to the lawsuit. 

There is no body camera footage of the raid, because the officers involved were in LMPD's Criminal Interdiction Division, which doesn't require officers to wear body cameras. 

Related Stories:

Copyright 2020 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.