Check it out tho
FOP blasts judge for freeing alleged cop shooter. His lawyer says police are in the wrong
FOP blasts judge for freeing alleged cop shooter. His lawyer says police are in the wrong
The FOP says putting a man on home incarceration charged with attempted murder of a policeman endangers the public.www.google.com
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Fraternal Order of Police is livid that a Louisville judge on Friday released a man on home incarceration who is charged with attempted murder and assault for allegedly shooting a Louisville Metro Police sergeant in a fatal police shooting of an EMT.
But the man's lawyer says it is the police who should be ashamed for killing his girlfriend Breonna Taylor — an EMT with no criminal record — and endangering the public while serving a search warrant in the middle of the night.
FOP Chapter 614 President Ryan Nichols said in a news release that Jefferson Circuit Judge Olu Stevens' decision to release Kenneth Walker is a “slap in the face to everyone wearing a badge" and has endangered the public.
Walker, 27, had been held on a $250,000 full cash bond for allegedly shooting Sgt. Jon Mattingly March 13 while he and two other officers tried to serve a search warrant in a drug investigation. Mattingly underwent surgery and is recovering.
The commonwealth’s attorney’s office objected to home incarceration, citing the seriousness of the charges. “One person is dead, and one person was almost killed due to Mr. Walker's actions,” prosecutor Ebert Haegele said. But Walker's defense lawyer, Rob Eggert, said it was police who killed Taylor.
The commonwealth’s attorney’s office objected to home incarceration, citing the seriousness of the charges. “One person is dead, and one person was almost killed due to Mr. Walker's actions,” prosecutor Ebert Haegele said. But Walker's defense lawyer, Rob Eggert, said it was police who killed Taylor.
"In this case the threat to the community came not from Kenneth Walker, but from police," he said.
He said his inspection of an apartment building on Springfield Drive near Doss High School where the shooting occurred shows police fired some 20 shots into the building, some of which entered other apartments, endangering residents that included a 5-year-child.LMPD Chief Steve Conrad said he couldn’t comment because of a pending investigation.Eggert suggested in a bond reduction motion that Walker acted in self-defense when he thought somebody was breaking into Taylor's apartment.
And he said his client, who has no felony convictions, was well-suited for home incarceration.
In the motion, Eggert told Stevens that Walker was in bed with his longtime girlfriend at her home when police chose to execute the warrant at 1 a.m.
Eggert said they heard a loud banging on the door and though police may claim to have identified themselves, they did not.
When they heard the door exploding open, apparently struck by a battering ram, Walker fired one shot, apparently hitting Mattingly, Eggert said, while police fired multiple times, striking Taylor, who was naked, eight times and killing her.
“Had Mr. Walker known that police were outside he would have opened the door and ushered them in,” Eggert said. He also noted that no drugs were found, that Walker was not the target of the search warrant and that the home belonged to Taylor, not him. In an interview, Eggert said: "The FOP is wrong" and trying to intimidate Judge Stevens.
Objecting to the motion, Haegele, an assistant commonwealth’s attorney, said Eggert's account represents only Walker’s version of events and that the only factors Stevens should have considered were whether he was a flight risk, was likely to appear for future proceedings and presented a danger to others. Commonwealth’s Attorney Tom Wine said in an email that Walker, because of the seriousness of his alleged crimes, was not a candidate for release because of the coronavirus.
Nearly 180 inmates have been freed from the Jefferson County jail to avoid spreading the virus.
Read this: More than 100 pretrial defendants to be released from jail to avoid coronavirus spread
Stevens ordered Walker held on home incarceration without release for work or other purposes and ordered him not to possess firearms.
A pretrial hearing was set for June 25.
Taylor's family members said she was kind, hardworking and honest and that they were angry she was dead at age 26. The Jefferson County coroner confirmed she was killed in the shooting.
"She really did not deserve to end her life so horrifically," Taylor's aunt, Bianca Austin, said in an interview.
She said Taylor became a certified EMT in 2017, and loved her work as a PRN at Norton Healthcare and an ER technician at University of Louisville Health Jewish East.
The judge and the brotha heads should be on a swivel
