Kenneth Walker
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Louisville to Pay $2 Million to Kenneth Walker, Breonna Taylor’s Boyfriend

Phyllis Coley @phyllis_coley

LOUISVILLE, KY – Louisville Metro Police (LMPD) settled with Breonna Taylor‘s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, for $2 million on Monday (Nov. 14), according to Louisville’s Courier-Journal. Walker and Taylor, a 26-year-old unarmed Black woman, were asleep in her South End apartment on March 13, 2020, when LMPD officers attempted to serve a search warrant as part of a narcotics investigation. 

Kenneth Walker
Breonna’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker poses in front of her painted portrait on the One Year Anniversary of the death of Breonna Taylor on March 13, 2021, in Louisville, Kentucky. (AP)

Walker, who has said he thought an intruder was breaking in, fired a single shot that hit former Louisville Metro Police Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in the thigh. Taylor was shot to death when police returned fire. Mattingly confirmed the settlement and said that he and the other individual officers named in two civil lawsuits were released from having to pay.

Frederick Moore, an attorney representing Walker, said he couldn’t confirm the settlement or comment on the specifics of Monday’s federal court mediation until “details have been finalized.” 

At the time of Taylor’s shooting, Walker was charged with assault and attempted murder of a police officer. His charges were dismissed permanently in March 2021.

However, Kenneth Walker filed a state and federal lawsuit seeking damages against the city and the officers who raided Taylor’s apartment.

Walker’s claims assert his rights were violated when officers obtained and approved the “materially false” search warrant, failed to announce before they entered Taylor’s apartment, and used excessive and unreasonable force. He also claims LMPD’s policies, customs and practices led to these violations.

Walker’s civil suits named former LMPD Detective Kelly Goodlett, former detective Joshua Jaynes, and former Sgt. Kyle Meany for their purported role in falsifying and covering up the bad information used to obtain the warrant. All three were charged with federal civil rights violations in August.

Joey Klausing, an attorney representing Goodlett, said his client was released from the lawsuit Monday with no payment requirement. Goodlett in August pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights charge for her role in falsifying information used to obtain the search warrant on Taylor’s apartment.

No other officers faced charges besides former officer Brett Hankison who was charged with violating Taylor’s civil rights and that of her three neighbors who he recklessly shot at from outside the apartment.