Simon & Schuster won’t distribute book by police officer involved in Breonna Taylor raid
(CNN) — Simon & Schuster said it won’t distribute a book written by the Louisville police officer who was shot while executing a no-knock warrant at the home of Breonna Taylor, who was killed in the raid.
Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly’s book, “The Fight for Truth: The Inside Story Behind the Breonna Taylor Tragedy,” was to be published by Post Hill Press, senior publicist Devon Brown confirmed to the Louisville Courier Journal earlier on Thursday.
Simon & Schuster said it only learned about the book to be published by its “distribution client” Post Hill Press on Thursday. “We have subsequently decided not be involved in the distribution of this book,” the publishing company said in a statement.
Mattingly’s lawyer has declined to comment on the matter and Post Hill Press has not returned CNN’s request for a comment so far.
Taylor, an EMT and aspiring nurse, was killed in her own home on March 13, 2020, when three Louisville police officers executing a “no-knock” warrant returned gunfire after her boyfriend fired a warning shot because he thought he was shooting at intruders.
Mattingly, Det. Myles Cosgrove and then-officer Brett Hankison used a battering ram to force open the door to the 26-year-old’s apartment. Mattingly told investigators he entered the apartment and felt the heat of a bullet in his leg. The round, fired by Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker III, severed his femoral artery. He and the two other officers returned fire.
Last October Mattingly sued Walker for battery, assault and emotional distress. He claimed he was entitled to damages for medical treatment, trauma and the pain he suffered after he was fired upon by Walker, who was with Taylor, the moment she was fatally shot by police.
At the time Mattingly’s attorney, Kent Wicker, said his client was “shot and nearly killed” by Walker. “He’s entitled to, and should, use the legal process to seek a remedy for the injury that Walker has caused him,” Wicker said in a statement.
The lawsuit came after Walker filed a $10.5 million lawsuit against the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the Louisville/Jefferson County metro government and members of the Louisville Metro Police Department, seeking damages for false arrest, malicious prosecution and assault, among other claims.
Only one of the three officers, Hankison, was indicted on three counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree in connection with Taylor’s death. He was not charged with causing her death, but for “wantonly and blindly” firing at her apartment. He had pleaded not guilty.
Taylor’s death fueled months of protests over racial injustice and police brutality, along with the deaths of other Black people at the hands of police, like George Floyd in Minneapolis and Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta.