A newly-released ballistics report states that Sergeant Jonathan Mattingly, the police officer whose leg was hit by a bullet as he joined two other officers to serve a “no-knock” search warrant at Breonna Taylor’s apartment was shot by Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, not friendly fire, as had been alleged in some quarters.
The Louisville Metro Police Department released a Kentucky Police ballistics report that confirmed Mattingly was hit by a 9 mm round fired from Walker’s Glock Luger semiautomatic pistol, the Daily Mail noted. The officers were carrying .40-caliber guns and fired 32 rounds during the raid.
“The report says that 32 cartridge casings from 40-caliber guns were found, which match the number of rounds investigators said were fired by three officers — Mattingly, Detective Myles Cosgrove and former Detective Brett Hankison,” the Courier-Journal stated, admitting, “The Courier Journal previously reported that an abbreviated state police report said ‘due to limited markings of comparative value,’ the 9 mm bullet that hit and exited Mattingly’s thigh was neither ‘identified nor eliminated as having been fired’ from Walker’s gun.”
The Courier-Journal noted, “Melissa Oberg, an Indianapolis firearms examiner, also said the round had to have been fired by Walker.”
Despite claims that Mattingly had been hit by friendly fire, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron had asserted there was “no evidence to support that Sergeant Mattingly was hit by friendly fire from other officers.”
Cameron stated at a press conference on September 23:
When officers were unable to get anyone to answer or open the door to apartment four, the decision was made to breach the door. After breaching the door, Sergeant Mattingly was the first and only officer to enter the residence. Sergeant Mattingly identified two individuals standing beside one another at the end of the hall, a male and a female. In his statement, he says that the male was holding a gun, arms extended in a shooting stance. Sergeant Mattingly saw the man’s gun fire, heard a boom, and immediately knew he was shot as a result of feeling heat in his upper thigh.
Kenneth Walker fired the shot that hit Sergeant Mattingly. And there’s no evidence to support that Sergeant Mattingly was hit by friendly fire from other officers. Mr. Walker admitted that he fired one shot and was the first to shoot. In addition to all the testimony, the ballistics report shows that the round that struck Sergeant Mattingly was fired from a nine millimeter handgun. The LMPD officers fired 40 caliber hand guns.
Sergeant Mattingly returned fire down the hallway. Mattingly fired six shots. Almost simultaneously, Detective Cosgrove, also in the doorway, shot 16 times. This all took place in a matter of seconds. In total, six bullets struck Ms. Taylor. Medical evidence obtained by our team indicates that only one shot was fatal. Further medical evidence shows that Ms. Taylor would have died from the fatal shot within a few seconds to two minutes after being struck.