Baller Alert Entertainment & Lifestyle
You know it’s the playing with our intelligence for me. According to one of the responding officers involved in the murder of Breonna Taylor, Taylor would still be alive if her boyfriend didn’t have time to get his gun. He also feels that bodycam footage would exonerate all of the officers involved that day.
Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly sat down with Michael Strahan from ABC’s “Good Morning America” and the Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper to give his side of the story on what happened March 13, the day Louisville, Kentucky Metro police officers killed the 26-year-old Black EMT. He openly gave his perspective on that day–making it hard for Strahan, who is Black–to listen to his views. According to him, had officers NOT given Taylor and her boyfriend Kenneth Walker III time to answer the door, she would still be alive.
Apparently, their botched-drug raid followed the no-knock provision—that officers knock for 45 seconds to a minute before entering. Mattingly feels this amount of time allowed Walker to grab his gun and shoot.
“We would’ve either served the no-knock warrant, or we would’ve done the normal thing we do — which is 5 to 10 seconds — to not give people time to formulate a plan, not give people time to get their senses so they have an idea of what they’re doing because if that had happened … Breonna Taylor would be alive,” Mattingly said, speaking on what he would have done differently if he had to redo it.
In his first appearance and interview regarding Taylor, Mattingly told the world that Taylor and her family aren’t the only victims, “I was a victim in this as well. My family has been a victim in this. They have had to go in hiding. They have had death threats,” he said. “When somebody sits back from their mansion and accuses somebody, they don’t know of being a racist and being a dirty cop, being a murderer when that’s not the case, that does affect you.”
It’s been reported that officers knocked six separate times, CNN reports, but Walker and witnesses claim they never identified themselves, which was his reason he fired his weapon on the plainclothes officers when they forced in the apartment door.
Mattingly did say it was possible Walker didn’t hear police identifying themselves.
Mattingly also feels had him and his co-workers worn bodycams, then Taylor’s case wouldn’t be a hot topic. In fact, all officers would be exonerated in their part of the narcotics raid, a raid that turned up no drugs or cash.
Sadly, Mattingly is passionate about his misguided stance regarding Taylor’s case, disregarding the facts of the case that America and protesters are upset about; the raid was botched from the start. His frustration over the protests and its protesters whom he referred to as “thugs” is baffling, to say the least. He also slammed the FBI, city, and police leadership, claiming they allowed misinformation to spread.
“We’re doing our job,” Mattingly said of him and his colleagues. He also highlights the problem of policing in America by saying race or racial profiling was not a factor in this case. Many of us beg to differ. Instead, Mattingly says they were “criminal profiling”—knowing an area well enough to know when someone is engaging in criminal activity by their demeanor. Perhaps we should survey what these areas are, more than likely disadvantaged areas with minorities.
“It’s a feeling that goes along with what you’ve experienced with what is in the area — what should or shouldn’t be,” he said. It seems like Mattingly is also a bit flustered that Taylor’s case is being associated with George Floyd, which he strongly says it doesn’t compare.
“This is not us going hunting somebody down. This is not kneeling on a neck. It’s nothing like that. This is not relatable to George Floyd. This is nothing like that,” he said. “It’s not Ahmaud Arbery. It’s nothing like it.”
He agrees that Floyd didn’t have to die, calling the incident “disgusting” and that the four officers involved should have been locked up. But then he didn’t hold back on saying Floyd wasn’t a model citizen, referencing his toxicology report while doing so. According to the Dailymail, Fentanyl was found in Floyd’s system at the time of his death; however, it was never confirmed he died from an overdose like Mattingly suggested was possibly the reason. And in an attempt to show empathy after his deviance for guilt, he closed the interview with a message to Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer.
“Ms. Palmer, nobody should ever have to go through what you’re feeling. Nobody can sympathize or feel what you’re feeling unless they lost a child. There’s no way I could ever tell you enough how much I wish that hadn’t taken place,” he said.
“No amount of money or police reform will bring Taylor back, he said, but “I just hope you can find it in your heart at some point to find some peace, find some love in the future, and I pray that everybody learns something from this and that this tragedy never happens again to any other family.”
