LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Former Louisville Metro Police Detective John Mattingly, who was shot by Breonna Taylor's boyfriend while leading a raid into her home in 2020, testified Monday in Brett Hankison's trial that he would have reacted the same as Hankison that night.

Several other officers testified last week that Hankison blindly firing 10 shots into Taylor's home and a neighboring apartment during the botched raid was "dangerous" and "shocking," putting their lives and those of Taylor's neighbors in danger.

Mattingly testified that he was also "initially confused" by Hankison's actions during the March 13, 2020, raid. 

"I had questions too," he told jurors on the fifth day of testimony in Hankison's trial on two counts of civil rights violations and using excessive force.

But after talking with Hankison a few months following the raid, Mattingly testified he would have reacted the same way.

"Because our whole job is to preserve and save life," Mattingly said.

Mattingly acknowledged he was friendly with Hankison and had helped raise money for his defense.

Prosecutors pointed out that in a previous incident, Mattingly was shot at while trying to serve a warrant from someone inside a house and he did not return fire blindly into the home. 

Mattingly, however, said that if he had been shot, he would have "absolutely" returned fire into the house. There was a woman and child inside.

Hankison is expected to testify Monday afternoon.

His attorneys have argued that he thought other officers were being "executed" and he was trying to save them from what he believed was a gun fight in which police may have been trapped in a hallway with someone shooting an assault rifle.

In actuality, Kenneth Walker had fired one shot from a handgun, believing the couple were being robbed. Police were trying to serve a search warrant as part of a larger drug investigation.

Hankison fired five shots into Taylor's living room from outside through a blinded sliding door according to the prosecution. He fired five more shots through a bedroom window that was covered by curtains.

Some of the shots went into an adjacent apartment where Cody Etherton, Chelsey Napper and her 5-year-old child lived.

A bullet missed Etherton by inches and both he and Nappers are suffering from PTSD since the shooting.

The charges stem from the botched raid of Taylor's home in the middle of the night in which police officers busted down her door to serve a search warrant related to a drug dealer who lived 10 miles away. Multiple other warrants were being served at the same time.

After Walker fired a shot that hit Mattingly in the leg, multiple LMPD officers returned fire, killing Taylor, 26. No drugs were found in her home.

In 2020, police sought out a search warrant for Taylor's home as part of a broader investigation that focused on drug suspect Jamarcus Glover. Police believed Glover may have been using Taylor's apartment to receive drugs and store money.

This is Hankison's third trial related to his actions the night of the raid. A federal jury in November 2023 deadlocked on two counts of civil rights violations and using excessive force.

A state Jefferson Circuit Court jury in March 2022 found Hankison not guilty on three counts of wanton endangerment.

Taylor was inside the apartment with Walker in bed when police burst in early in the morning on March 13, 2020.

LMPD has claimed that while Jaynes obtained a "no-knock" warrant, police repeatedly knocked on Taylor's door and announced themselves before bursting in. Some neighbors have said they never heard police identify themselves.

Mattingly testified he knocked repeatedly, harder and harder, and police announced their presence.

"The level of aggression as far as knocking and announcing always gets a response, and this didn't," he said.

When police burst in, Mattingly saw someone pointing a shiny handgun and he was shot in the leg. He fired back six times "because I didn't want to die."

This story will be updated.

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