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Kenneth Walker III remains the only person to be arrested in connection with Breonna Taylor’s death in a hail of bullets during a March 13 police raid in Louisville, Kentucky, and he’s suing the city because of it.
Walker filed a $10.5 million lawsuit Tuesday claiming police brutality, unlawful arrest and malicious prosecution, among other allegations.
The state of Kentucky, Jefferson County and city of Louisville, Mayor Greg Fischer and former police chief Steve Conrad are named as defendants, along with 13 named city police officers.
Taylor was shot eight times by police when a group of plainclothes officers from the Louisville Metro Police Department broke into her home to execute a “no-knock” search warrant after midnight.
Walker was with Taylor, his girlfriend, in the apartment. Startled, he fired a gun at what he thought were intruders before realizing they were police, he said.
When the shooting ended, Taylor was dead on the floor and Walker was arrested.
“Assailants violently broke down the door, prompting Kenny to discharge a single shot from his licensed firearm,” the lawsuit says. “The perpetrators shot over 35 times.”
Walker was initially charged with attempted murder and assault. The charges were later dropped pending further investigation of the event by state and federal law enforcement agencies.
The bullet he fired hit one of the officers in the thigh, the lawsuit says.
Walker was justified in the shooting under the state’s “stand your ground” law, the lawsuit claims.
“Kenny was clearly acting in self-defense, that he had every right to do, and they knew that,” Walker’s lawyer reportedly told CNN. “Yet they charged him anyway because if he’s convicted it justifies their actions.”
Though Walker is not currently facing charges for the shooting, nothing is preventing the state attorney general or Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from initiating new charges against him.
Jeffrey Cooke, spokesman for Kentucky Commonwealth Attorney Tom Wine, told CNN he thinks Walker filed the civil lawsuit in an attempt to prevent being charged again.
Walker has said he and Taylor were in the bedroom watching a movie, and Taylor had fallen asleep, when they heard a loud noise at the apartment door.
He said they both jumped up, started to get dressed and called out to ask who was there. But he insists in the lawsuit they never heard the plainclothes officers announce themselves as police before opening fire.
After the shooting ended, the police ordered Walker out of the apartment and asked if he’d been hit.
When he said no, one of the officers said, “that’s unfortunate,” the lawsuit claims.
Another of the officers threatened to sic a nearby police dog on Walker if he didn’t get on his knees, according to the plaintiff.
“The bottom line is this, on that night, Kenny Walker was 27 years old. … Kenny had never been in trouble in his life,” the plaintiff’s counsel told CBS News. “And the police want you to believe that at almost (1 a.m.) he says, ‘My first foray into the criminal justice world, I’m gonna try to shoot a cop.’ It’s a ridiculous position.”
Walker’s is the third civil suit brought in connection with Breonna Taylor’s death.
Taylor’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in May against three officers they say shot her the night she died.
In August, a group of protestors filed a federal class action lawsuit against Fischer, the police department as a whole, individual police officials and unnamed officers over allegations of police brutality at demonstrations in the city in May that resulted in at least one death.
The plaintiffs in that case had gathered to peacefully protest Taylor’s death and racial injustice, they said.
Louisville police fired tear gas, flash bangs “and other forms of military-grade technology” to quiet protesters, the class action lawsuit says, and on May 31, along with National Guardsmen, fired their weapons at and killed David McAtee, who was standing in the doorway of his restaurant.
The class action was filed in U.S. District Court in the Western District of Kentucky.
Louisville is one of several American cities – including Detroit, Minneapolis, Seattle and Portland – to see frequent demonstrations against police brutality and racial injustice since Taylor’s death and that of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Have you experienced police brutality while demonstrating against racial inequality in policing or protesting against Breonna Taylor’s death? Have you been unlawfully arrested? Tell us about it in the comment section below.
Walker is represented by Frederick W. Moore III of Grossman Green PLLC; Steven R. Romines of Romines Weis & Young PSC; and Kevin C. Burke and Jamie K. Neal of Burke Neal PLLC, all of Louisville.
The Kenneth Walker Lawsuit is Kenneth Walker III v. the Commonwealth of Kentucky., et al., Case No. 20-CI-005086, in the Jefferson Circuit Court of Kentucky.
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