Boyfriend of Breonna Taylor Reaches $2 Million Settlement With City of Louisville

A photograph of Breonna Taylor in Washington, on July 30, 2022. Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Frontline Action Hub

The boyfriend of Breonna Taylor, who was shot dead by Louisville Metro Police Department officers in 2020, has reached a $2 million settlement with the City of Louisville, his lawyer announced.

Kenneth Walker III was with Taylor at her apartment on the night that she died in Louisville, Kentucky, on March 13, as police were serving a search warrant as part of a drugs investigation.

Police said they knocked and announced themselves for a minute or more before entering the apartment; however, Walker said he did not hear officers identify themselves and believed intruders were breaking into the home.

He then opened fire on police who returned fire, with some of the bullets striking 26-year-old Taylor, who was unarmed, and killing her.

Walker subsequently filed a lawsuit in state court in September 2020, followed by a federal civil rights lawsuit in March 2021, both of which named the Louisville Metro Government and the individual officers involved in obtaining the search warrant for Taylor’s apartment as defendants.

Breonna Taylor in file photographs released by the Louisville Metro Police Department. On right, she is pictured with Kenneth Walker, her boyfriend, who fired at police officers during a Mar. 13, 2020, raid, prompting them to fire back. Louisville Metro Police Department

‘This Tragedy Will Haunt Kenny for the Rest of His Life’

According to one of Walker’s lawyers, the city agreed to pay $2 million to settle both of the lawsuits in response to “the unlawful police raid that led to Ms. Taylor’s death.”

“While this tragedy will haunt Kenny for the rest of his life, he is pleased that this chapter of his life is completed. He will live with the effects of being put in harm’s way due to a falsified warrant, to being a victim of a hailstorm of gunfire, and to suffering the unimaginable and horrific death of Breonna Taylor,” the lawyer said in a statement.

The attorney did not state whether or not the settlement included an admission of wrongdoing by the defendants.

The Epoch Times has contacted Walker’s attorney for comment.

During the search warrant in March 2020, Walker was accused of shooting Louisville Metro Police Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in the leg and was initially arrested and charged with attempted murder of a police officer and first-degree assault, but those charges were later dropped.

Mattingly, who later sued the Louisville police department, confirmed to The Courier-Journal that he and another individual who were named in both of Walker’s lawsuits were released from having to pay.

Louisville Metro Police Sgt. Kyle Meany, former Louisville Metro Police Department detective Joshua Jaynes, current Louisville officer Kelly Goodlett, and former detective Brett Hankison were later charged by a federal grand jury for conspiracy to falsify the search warrant used to enter Taylor’s home.

In a statement at the time, the Department of Justice said that prosecutors had charged the four police employees with, among other things, federal civil rights offenses, unlawful conspiracies, obstruction offenses, and use of excessive force.

Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky., in an undated photograph. Courtesy of Taylor family attorney Sam Aguiar via AP

Breonna Taylor Should Be Alive Today

“Among other things, the federal charges announced today allege that members of LMPD’s Place-Based Investigations Unit falsified the affidavit used to obtain the search warrant of Ms. Taylor’s home, that this act violated federal civil rights laws, and that those violations resulted in Ms. Taylor’s death. Breonna Taylor should be alive today,” prosecutors said.

Detective Jaynes and Sergeant Kyle Meany were charged with federal civil rights and obstruction offenses for their roles in preparing and approving a false search warrant affidavit that resulted in Taylor’s death.

Detective Hankison was charged with civil rights offenses for firing his service weapon into Taylor’s apartment through a covered window and covered glass door. Goodlett was charged with conspiring with Jaynes to falsify the search warrant for Taylor’s home and to cover up their actions afterward. Goodlett pleaded guilty in August.

Taylor’s death prompted widespread protests throughout the nation.

Roughly six months after she was killed, officials in Louisville agreed to pay an historic $12 million settlement to Taylor’s family after they filed a wrongful death lawsuit which argued that police officers “had no probable cause or other legal basis to enter and search” her home.

The settlement did not include an admission of wrongdoing.

Caden Pearson contributed to this report.