Mattingly and other officers broke down the door of Taylor’s apartment while executing a midnight warrant on March 13 during a drug investigation. Although the warrant allowed officers to enter his home without knocking, officers knocked because they thought Taylor was home alone, officers said.
During the raid, Mattingly was shot, and officers opened fire, killing Taylor. His death sparked more than 100 days of protests in Louisville, as well as a national outcry over Floyd’s death in Minneapolis.
Taylor also became a key figure in the #SayHerName movement that seeks racial justice in police killings of black women. He has also appeared on national magazine covers such as Vanity Fair and O, The Oprah Magazine.
Mattingley said protests and public outrage surrounding Taylor’s case could have been avoided if the mayor of Louisville and police officers had corrected the misinformation quickly.
“It’s very painful,” Mottingley said. “When you have the truth on hand, when everything else is crowded around you, it’s frustrating.”
None of the officers who were at Taylor’s home that night were blamed for Taylor’s death. A senior arbitrator has charged a detective with three fatal accidents, and is charged with indiscriminate shooting at a neighbor who entered a neighboring apartment with three others. The detective pleaded not guilty.
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron has faced criticism for not seeking serious charges in Taylor’s death. He asserted that his confession had been obtained through torture, and that his confession had been obtained through torture.
Matting denied that there was a racial motive behind the actions of the three officers who threw weapons during a search of Taylor’s apartment.
“It’s not a race, people want to try to create it. It’s not. It’s a stage where we were doing our job.
“This is not us going, we’ve hunting someone. It’s not kneeling around. It’s nothing like that.” He added.
CNN’s Theresa Waltrobe and Ray Sanchez contributed to the report.
