By Nelson Oliveira
New York Daily News
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Kentucky police officer who was shot in the thigh during a botched raid into Breonna Taylor’s apartment is suing her boyfriend for assault, battery and emotional distress.
Louisville Metro Police Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly was “shot and nearly killed” by Kenneth Walker and is “entitled to” seek a remedy for the injury he sustained, the officer’s attorney said in a statement Friday.
The lawsuit is a counterclaim to a civil complaint that Walker filed in September against the city of Louisville and its police department. The licensed gun owner, who fired a single shot when plainclothes officers burst into his girlfriend’s apartment on March 13, seeks immunity from prosecution under Kentucky’s “stand your ground” law and demands compensation for “assault, battery, false arrest and imprisonment, malicious prosecution, abuse of process and negligence,” according to his lawsuit.
Mattingly’s complaint says Walker’s gunshot, which hit the officer in the femoral artery and required five hours of surgery, was “outrageous, intolerable and offends all accepted standards of decency or morality,” the Courier-Journal reported Friday.
Mattingly was one of three officers who fired a weapon that night as police executed a search warrant connected to a narcotics investigation. Walker claims the officers never announced themselves, leading him to believe he and Taylor were the victims of a home invasion.
At least five of the bullets fired by police during the chaotic incident struck an unarmed Taylor, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
The only cop facing charged in connection with the case is former officer Brett Hankison. A months-long investigation that was presented to a grand jury last month led to three counts of wanton endangerment charges against him — not for shooting the Black woman, which authorities claim he didn’t do, but for blindly firing into her apartment building and putting the lives of her three white neighbors in jeopardy.
Mattingly and Det. Myles Cosgrove were not charged because they were “justified” in their use of deadly force, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron has said.
The lack of charges directly related to Taylor’s death was met with outrage nationwide following months of protests against police brutality and racial injustice. Even members of the grand jury have spoken out against the process, accusing Cameron’s team of denying them a chance to weigh homicide charges.
“They never gave us the opportunity to deliberate on anything but the charges for Hankison. That was it,” an anonymous grand juror told CBS News in an interview this week.
Walker, who was initially charged with attempted murder, claims he fired a “warning shot” when he heard people breaking into the apartment during the March incident. His lawsuit suggests the bullet that hit Mattingly was most likely the result of friendly fire by a fellow cop.
The charges against Walker could technically be refiled, which is why he’s seeking immunity from future prosecution in the case. His attorney, Steve Romines, said Mattingly’s lawsuit is an attempt to “intimidate and cover up” the events of March 13.
“If Kenny can be sued for defending himself, make no mistake, all lawful gun owners’ rights are at risk. And that should scare everyone,” Romines told the Courier-Journal.
Mattingly’s lawsuit calls for a jury trial, damages and attorney fees.
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