https://news.yahoo.com/ballistics-report-doesnt-support-kentucky-173958210.html Ballistics report doesn't support Kentucky AG's claim that Breonna Taylor's boyfriend shot cop LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A Kentucky State Police ballistics report does not support state Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s assertion that Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, shot a police officer the night she was killed. Cameron said Wednesday the investigation of Taylor’s death March 13 ruled out “friendly fire” from officer Brett Hankison as the source of the shot that went through Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly’s thigh, prompting him and officer Myles Cosgrove to return fire, killing Taylor. The KSP report says that “due to limited markings of comparative value,” the 9mm bullet that hit and exited Mattingly was neither “identified nor eliminated as having been fired” from Walker’s gun. Cameron said Hankison had been eliminated as the shooter because the three officers carried .40-caliber handguns, while Walker had a 9. Wednesday night on CNN, Steven Romines, one of Walker’s attorneys, said he obtained a Louisville Metro Police Department record showing Hankison had been issued a 9mm weapon as well.
New Body-Cam Footage Raises Questions About Breonna Taylor Death Investigation Footage and documents obtained by VICE News depict Louisville police officers apparently violating department policies and cast doubt on the integrity of the crime scene and the investigation. Hours of body camera footage from Louisville Metro Police Department officers and SWAT team members paint a telling picture of the immediate aftermath of the police raid in which Breonna Taylor was killed. The footage, which was obtained by VICE News and documents what was seen by officers who responded to the scene after the shooting, has not previously been made public. It shows officers appearing to break multiple department policies and corroborates parts of Taylor’s boyfriend’s testimony. It also raises questions about the integrity not only of the crime scene but of the ensuing investigation into what happened that night. The footage was captured by 45 different body cameras and included as part of the investigative file compiled by the LMPD’s Public Integrity Unit and shared with the Kentucky attorney general’s office. (No footage from the raid itself has been released, and for months, LMPD has insisted that none exists, saying that officers in this unit often operate in plainclothes and were not required to wear body cameras. VICE News has previously reported that crime scene photos contradict initial statements by the LMPD claiming that the officers involved, who work narcotics, do not wear body cameras. Photographs of officers taken from that night clearly show Tony James, one of the at least seven officers present for the raid, wearing a body camera over his right shoulder.) Footage shows not one of the seven officers who were present for the raid being immediately separated and paired with an escort, which is a violation of LMPD’s own policy. The department’s standards and procedures state that all officers involved in a critical incident must be paired with an escort officer at the scene and “isolated from all non-essential individuals for the remainder of the initial investigation.” “I’ve never seen anything like this,” a former LMPD narcotics officer, who reviewed parts of the footage, told VICE News. The officer, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, added that it’s the responsibility of the commanders on scene to make sure all involved officers are taken aside. “This is not how it’s supposed to work,” they added. According to interviews they gave to LMPD investigators, two of the involved officers—Detectives Mike Nobles and Tony James—left the scene and went to the University of Louisville hospital, where Sgt. Jon Mattingly, who was shot in the leg, was taken. Body-cam footage shows four others—Detectives Brett Hankison, Myles Cosgrove, and Mike Campbell, and Lieutenant Shawn Hoover—still on scene, roaming around freely with their guns drawn. The behavior of three involved officers in particular stands out: Hankison, Cosgrove, and Campbell. After SWAT team members clear the apartment and pronounce Taylor dead on scene, now-former LMPD detective Hankison, who fired 10 shots that night according to the department, approaches the front door to ask if someone is dead inside. Minutes later, Hankison returns and even steps inside the apartment, an active crime scene. He asks SWAT officers if they found a long gun, and whether the casings on the ground are “theirs.” Multiple SWAT team members on the body camera footage seem to be made visibly uncomfortable by Hankison’s presence. One of them tells other officers sternly to clear him out. I’d back out until they get PIU in here,” SWAT officer Sgt. Brandon Hogan tells him, referring to the Public Integrity Unit (PIU), which investigates officer-involved shootings. Later, Hogan says, “This is a crime scene.” Shortly thereafter, Hankison walks up to a SWAT team member standing on the sidewalk and asks if his body camera is on before the video cuts out. Campbell—who, according to LMPD, didn’t discharge his weapon but was present for the raid—not only lingers on scene, but helps interview neighbors. Campbell told investigators that after SWAT cleared Taylor’s apartment, “I went up and talked, checked, tried to make contact with all the apartments to make sure they were okay.” Body camera footage shows Campbell descending the stairs leading to the apartments above Taylor’s while officers are speaking with potential witnesses. According to recordings of investigative interviews obtained by VICE News, PIU interviewers do not question Campbell’s actions; rather, they ask what Campbell learned that might help in their own investigation. Cosgrove, who fired 16 rounds according to LMPD, is on scene carrying a rifle immediately following the incident. At no point does body camera footage show anyone separating him from the dozens of other officers who arrived to respond to the incident. The failure to separate the involved officers isn’t just clearly documented in body camera footage—it’s also brought up in multiple interviews conducted by PIU in the aftermath of the incident, which are included in the investigative file that was compiled by LMPD and sent to the attorney general’s office. In his investigative report, Sgt. Jason Vance wrote, "Investigators observed Detective Hankison walking in and out of the primary scene. At 0200 hours Sergeant Wilder and I verbally requested Hankison to remove himself from the primary scene and make contact with members of LMPD Peer Support.” The report also states that Hankison’s behavior violated policy. “It should be noted investigators later learned Detective Hankison deviated from standard LMPD practices for an officer involved in a critical incident and left the scene location without his assigned LMPD Peer Support escort," it reads. "Hankison deviated from the standard protocol when he traveled unattended to University of Louisville Hospital having contact with CID command and Police Chief Steve Conrad.” On May 19, Lieutenant Dale Massey, who was the SWAT commander on scene, testified that he saw involved officers “still in the mix.” He specifically calls out Hankison and Cosgrove, both of whom fired their weapons that night. “[Cosgrove]," he said in the interview, "had a rifle slung, so I assumed just having a rifle slung that he was there after the fact….while we’re on scene, we learned that Cosgrove’s involved in it,” Massey told investigators. “I was, like, ‘Man, get him outta the mix.’ Cause he was still in the mix doing stuff. I was, like, 'Get him separated from everybody.'” Massey added “I do remember saying ‘Hey, separate him. He’s involved. He’s—he was way too up in the mix, you know?’” VICE News has previously reported that crime scene photos contradict initial statements by the LMPD claiming that the officers involved, who work narcotics, do not wear body cameras. Photographs of officers taken from that night clearly show Tony James, one of the at least seven officers present for the raid, wearing a body camera over his right shoulder.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/29/us/breonna-taylor-grand-jurors/index.html Breonna Taylor grand jurors say there was an 'uproar' when they realized officers wouldn't be charged with her death (CNN)Two grand jurors who heard the Kentucky Attorney General's Office presentation of the Breonna Taylor case say prosecutors were dismissive of their questions and that there was an "uproar" when jurors realized Louisville police officers wouldn't be charged with Taylor's death. The grand jurors -- who are choosing to remain anonymous, citing security concerns -- spoke to journalists by phone Wednesday evening along with their attorney, Kevin Glogower, and community activist Christopher 2X. They spoke about how their service on the Taylor case was unlike dozens of other cases they heard throughout their month of service. "Was justice was done? No, I feel that there was there's quite a bit more that could have been done or should have been presented for us to deliberate on," Grand Juror 1, a White male, told reporters on the call. A timeline of Breonna Taylor's case since police broke down her door and shot her Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Annie O'Connell earlier this month allowed grand jurors to speak about their service after Grand Juror 1 filed court documents suggesting public comments by Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron about the proceedings were misleading. Six possible homicide charges under Kentucky law weren't considered against the Louisville Metro Police Department officers who fired their weapons in Taylor's apartment because "they were justified in the return of deadly fire" after being shot at once by Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker III, Cameron said in a news conference last month. The "grand jury agreed" with that decision, he said in his first public comments about the grand jury proceedings. Grand Juror 1 described Cameron's comments as "inaccurate" and said the first time he heard there were six possible homicide charges that the jurists could have reviewed was in Cameron's news conference. "Even though we asked for other charges to be brought, we were never told of any additional charges. We were just told that they didn't feel that they can make any charges stick" and that LMPD officers were justified in returning fire," the juror said. "They didn't go into the details of the self-defense statutes, they didn't go into the details of any of the six possible murder statutes," he said, explaining Cameron's news conference was the catalyst for filing the petition with the court. Grand Juror 2, a Black male, said there should have been additional charges against "maybe up to the six officers that were there" when Taylor was killed. "We were never given the opportunity to deliberate against any other charges," he said, calling Cameron's comments "just false all the way around." "We were open the whole time to listen to everything they presented, and it would have been nice if they had presented every charge, but they only presented those three charges," Grand Juror 2 said, referring to the charges brought against former LMPD detective Brett Hankison. A third anonymous grand juror who also has come forward "firmly supports the fact that no additional charges were allowed at the conclusion of their service," according a statement released late Friday afternoon by Glogower, who now represents all three grand jurors. The grand jury indicted Hankison on three counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree in connection with Taylor's death. He is not charged with causing the death of Taylor, but for "wantonly and blindly" firing at her apartment. Some of the bullets went through Taylor's apartment and into one next door, where three people were inside, including a pregnant woman and a child. The three counts are for each of those people in that apartment. "There was an uproar" when prosecutors announced those were the only charges being presented to the grand jury, according to Grand Juror 1. "When they finally did present the charges to us ... almost of all of the people at once said, 'Isn't there anything else?'" The reply from the attorney general's office was there were no other charges that they could make stick, Grand Juror 1 recalled. "There were a lot of questions," he said. "We didn't go right into deliberation on charges because we wanted to know what else was missing. ... There was an uproar at the end, and it suggested to me that there were several other people who wanted to know more information." According to Kentucky law, prosecutors "shall attend the grand jurors when requested by them" and "when requested by them, draft indictments." Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron addresses the media following the return of the grand jury investigation into Taylor's death, in Frankfort, Kentucky, on September 23. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron addresses the media following the return of the grand jury investigation into Taylor's death, in Frankfort, Kentucky, on September 23. The two grand jurors -- who are not authorized to speak on behalf of other members of the panel -- told journalists Wednesday evening they found it unusual that prosecutors announced the charges they wanted the jurists to vote on after all the evidence was presented, whereas in the dozens of cases they heard throughout their grand jury term, charges were announced by prosecutors at the beginning of the case. "There were probably 40 cases we'd heard throughout the month of September," Grand Juror 1 explained. "All of the charges were brought to us first and then we listen to the evidence that applied to those charges, so we knew what we were listening to and what we're listening for." In Taylor's case, prosecutors "provided two and a half days of evidence and then presented the charges at the very end, which was confusing to us," he said. Juror 1 said Cameron's office told the grand jury "more than once" that they were going to present the case like a trial, "but even in a trial the jury knows what the charges are and why they're listening to the evidence they're listening to. We were not afforded that luxury." Grand Juror 2 said it seemed the attorney general's office "deliberately did it backwards." CNN has asked Cameron's office why it presented charges at the end of its presentation of the Taylor case, when the jurors said they heard charges at the start of all other cases during their September grand jury service. Part of the reason both jurors chose to come forward, they said, was because they wanted Tamika Palmer, Breonna's mother, to know they weren't behind the attorney general's decision not to indict officers for the killing of her daughter. "I'd like her to know that in this room we took seriously our responsibility to listen to all the evidence that they presented to us," Grand Juror 2 said. Palmer is asking the Kentucky Prosecutors Advisory Council to appoint an independent prosecutor to present the case of her daughter's death before a new grand jury, saying the state attorney general's handling of the case "undermines the trust and integrity of the entire process." And as daily protests calling #JusticeForBreonna continue, the FBI is investigating whether any federal civil rights violations occurred in the events that brought the LMPD officers to Taylor's apartment and the events that followed her death. "I believe part of how we heal is doing exactly what we're doing," Grand Juror 1 said. "Bringing this further into the public eye as to how, how and what it was, was presented. And I believe that that may begin part of the healing process, but it's not enough."