Breonna Taylor’s Boyfriend: Settlement, Countersuit, and Ruling

Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend is Kenneth Walker III, a licensed gun owner and U.S. Postal Service employee who was in the apartment when Louisville Metro Police broke down the door shortly after midnight on March 13, 2020. Walker fired a single shot at officers he believed were intruders, striking Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in the leg and drawing the return fire that killed Taylor. He was initially charged with attempted murder of a police officer, saw those charges dropped, and later reached a $2 million settlement with the City of Louisville.¹

Who Kenneth Walker Is

Walker was 27 at the time of the raid, a licensed gun owner with no prior criminal history who worked for the U.S. Postal Service. He and Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician, were in a relationship and were in bed together when officers arrived at her apartment to execute a narcotics search warrant.

The warrant had originally been approved as “no-knock” but was changed to “knock and announce” before the raid.² One detective said officers knocked and announced for one to two minutes; Walker and other witnesses said they heard no identification.³

What Walker Did That Night

Walker later said he and Taylor heard aggressive banging on the door. Taylor screamed “Who is it?” and Walker said he called out the same question repeatedly with no answer.⁴ When officers breached the door with a battering ram, Walker — believing it might be a home invasion by Taylor’s ex-boyfriend — fired one shot from his legally owned handgun. He said he aimed at the ground to scare off intruders. The bullet struck Sgt. Mattingly in the thigh, hitting his femoral artery.⁵

Officers fired back. Detective Brett Hankison fired 10 rounds blindly through a covered window and sliding glass door. Detective Myles Cosgrove fired 16 rounds into the apartment.² Taylor was hit five times. Federal ballistics experts later determined that the fatal shot came from Cosgrove’s weapon.⁶ A Kentucky State Police ballistics report could not definitively confirm that Walker’s bullet was the one that struck Mattingly, raising the possibility of friendly fire.⁷ No drugs were found in the apartment.

The 911 Call

At 12:47 a.m., about five minutes after the shooting stopped, Walker called 911. “I don’t know what’s happening,” he told the dispatcher. “Somebody kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend.”⁸ The two-minute call was the first alert to emergency personnel that Taylor was seriously wounded. Walker told the dispatcher she was not alert and appeared shot in the stomach. He did not mention police once — a fact his attorneys later used as evidence that he had no idea who had entered the apartment.

Walker said he realized police were involved only when he stepped outside and saw the guns pointed at him. He was placed in handcuffs. He recalled that an officer asked if he had been shot, and when he said no, the officer answered, “Well, that’s unfortunate.”⁹ In the confusion at the scene, Walker initially told police that Taylor had fired the shot. He later said he lied out of fear. “The first chance I got, when there were no guns pointed at me, I told them,” he testified.¹⁰

Around 5 or 6 a.m., Walker was told he was being charged with attempted murder of a police officer and first-degree assault.

How the Criminal Charges Were Dropped

The attempted murder and assault charges drew immediate scrutiny given Walker’s clean record and licensed gun. His attorneys argued he had done exactly what Kentucky law allows a homeowner to do when confronted by unknown intruders.¹¹

In May 2020, Jefferson County Commonwealth’s Attorney Tom Wine moved to dismiss the charges, citing a lack of evidence.⁸ A judge permanently closed the case in March 2021, barring any future charges related to the incident. Walker’s attorney Steve Romines said prosecutors had “acknowledged that he did nothing wrong and acted in self-defence.”¹²

Kentucky Self-Defense Law and the Paradox It Created

Walker’s legal team invoked Kentucky’s “stand your ground” statute, under which residents “have no duty to retreat or submit to force,” along with the castle doctrine, which allows a homeowner to use deadly force against perceived intruders.¹³ His lawsuit quoted a 1931 Kentucky opinion: “It is the tradition that a Kentuckian never runs. He does not have to.”¹⁴

Legal analysts noted a paradox: under the same laws, officers could also claim they returned fire in self-defense after being shot at, because Kentucky grants police additional leeway when they have legally entered a home with a warrant. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron later cited that framing to explain why he did not recommend homicide charges. He said Mattingly and Cosgrove were justified in returning fire because Walker shot first, and that this “justification bars us from pursuing charges in Ms. Breonna Taylor’s death.”⁷

Walker’s $2 Million Settlement With Louisville

In September 2020, Walker filed suit in state court against the City of Louisville, its police department, and individual officers. He filed a second suit in federal court in March 2021.¹⁵ The complaints alleged that officers obtained a “materially false” search warrant, failed to announce their presence, used excessive force, and subjected Walker to a “hailstorm of gunfire.” The suits named Mattingly, Cosgrove, Hankison, Joshua Jaynes, Kelly Goodlett, and Kyle Meany.¹

On November 14, 2022, after federal court mediation, Walker and the city reached a $2 million settlement that resolved both lawsuits and released the city and individual officers from further liability. The settlement included no admission of wrongdoing by the defendants.¹⁵

Mattingly’s Countersuit Against Walker

Sgt. Mattingly filed a countersuit against Walker in October 2020, alleging battery, assault, and intentional emotional distress over the gunshot wound to his leg.¹⁶ Mattingly voluntarily dismissed the suit in May 2023, saying it was “past time to begin the healing process.”⁵

The “Proximate Cause” Ruling That Named His Shot

Even after Walker was cleared and compensated, his shot returned to the center of the legal story. In August 2024, U.S. District Judge Charles Simpson dismissed felony enhancements on federal civil rights charges against Jaynes and Meany, the officers accused of falsifying the warrant. Simpson ruled that Walker’s gunshot was the “proximate, or legal, cause” of Taylor’s death and that the government could not attribute her killing to the invalid warrant.¹⁷ The judge wrote that Walker “disrupted those events when he decided to open fire” on police, and that the officers’ return fire was “a legal, lethal and tragic crossfire that was not initiated by the police.”¹⁸

The finding severed the legal link between the allegedly fraudulent warrant and Taylor’s death, and it weighed heavily on what came next. On March 27, 2026, following a request from the Trump administration’s DOJ, Judge Simpson dismissed the entire case against Jaynes and Meany with prejudice.¹⁹ For Walker, the ruling carried a bitter meaning: after being cleared of all criminal wrongdoing, a federal judge had characterized his defensive shot, fired from a legally owned gun at what he believed were home invaders, as the legal cause of Taylor’s death.

Walker in His Own Words

Walker has given several public interviews and testified at Brett Hankison’s federal trial. In an October 2020 interview with ABC News and the Louisville Courier Journal, he described his mindset that night: “Protect Breonna, protect myself — that was my only thought.” He recalled Taylor’s final moments: “She did scream … that’s the last sounds that she made.”⁴

He also laid out his view of responsibility in the same interview: “Whoever shot her is responsible for her death. Whoever came with that person … they’re responsible. Whoever allowed them to come there … they’re responsible.”

To CBS, Walker addressed the logic of his 911 call: “If I knew who it was, I would’ve said the police or I wouldn’t have been calling the police on the police. Doesn’t even make sense.”⁹

At Hankison’s 2023 federal trial, Walker described the gunfire as sounding “like a war” and said he remembered thinking, “There were so many shots, I was just hoping to live at that point.” Recalling the officer who called it “unfortunate” he had not been shot, Walker testified: “Oh, these people want to kill me.”¹⁰

1
Louisville Courier Journal. Kenneth Walker Breonna Taylor Boyfriend Lawsuit Settlement Louisville
2
U.S. Congress. House Judiciary Subcommittee Hearing Document on Breonna Taylor
3
NBC News. Grand Juror in Breonna Taylor Case Filed Motion Out of Concern for Truth
4
ABC News. Breonna Taylor’s Boyfriend Recounts Night of Raid
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WAVE 3 News. Former LMPD Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly Dismisses Lawsuit Against Kenneth Walker
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PBS NewsHour. Former Police Officer Who Shot Breonna Taylor Has New Job in Law Enforcement
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Good Morning America. Judge Orders Release of Breonna Taylor Grand Jury Recordings
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Louisville Public Media. 911 Call in Shooting Death of Breonna Taylor Released
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CNN. Kenneth Walker Breonna Taylor CBS Interview
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Louisville Public Media. Breonna Taylor’s Boyfriend Says He Thinks Officers Wanted Him Dead
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ABC News. Kenneth Walker, Boyfriend of Breonna Taylor, Sues Police and City
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BBC News. Breonna Taylor Case Permanently Closed Against Kenneth Walker
13
NBC News. Kenneth Walker and Police Can Both Claim Kentucky Law Protects Their Conduct
14
WDRB. Breonna Taylor’s Boyfriend Kenneth Walker Sues Over Fatal Police Raid
15
CNN. Breonna Taylor’s Boyfriend Reaches Settlement With Louisville
16
NPR. Simon and Schuster Reverses, Won’t Distribute Book by Officer in Breonna Taylor Raid
17
WDRB. Federal Judge Dismisses Criminal Charges Against Former LMPD Officers in Breonna Taylor Case
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CBS News. Breonna Taylor Kenneth Walker Judge Dismisses Officer Charges
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Louisville Public Media. Judge Dismissed Charges Against Officers Accused of Falsifying Warrant in Breonna Taylor Raid