Police serving a search warrant on Breonna Taylor's home told investigators they banged on her door and announced themselves from 30 to 90 seconds before breaking in during a raid that ended with the officers fatally shooting her, audio recordings released on Friday show.
The new details from the police officers who raided Taylor's Louisville apartment contrast with earlier witness reports and have been a point of contention in the case that has captured national attention and prompted street protests over racism and police use of force.
Kentucky's attorney general on Friday released audio recordings of the grand jury proceedings that cleared three policemen of homicide charges in Taylor's death, offering a rare peek at the inner workings of a grand jury, which is normally kept secret.
The grand jury last week cleared the two white officers who shot Taylor and charged a third with wanton endangerment for stray bullets that hit a neighbouring apartment in the March 13 raid.
Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who was with her, has said he believed the officers who burst in were criminal intruders and Walker fired once, wounding one officer. Three officers then shot 32 rounds, six of which hit Taylor.
In a police interview on March 25 that was played to the grand jury last week, the officer who was wounded, Sergeant Jonathan Mattingly, said police banged on Taylor's door repeatedly six or seven different times, repeatedly announcing they were police there to serve a search warrant.
"It probably lasted between 45 seconds and a minute, banging on the door," Mr Mattingly said. He went on to describe how a colleague broke in the door and he was first to enter the apartment, soon to encounter Walker with a gun about 20 feet away. Walker fired first.
"As soon as the shot was fired I could feel the heat in my leg. So I just returned fire. Got four rounds off," said Mr Mattingly, who later fired two more shots before retreating because of his wound.
Mattingly and Detective Myles Cosgrove, who fired 16 rounds, hit Taylor a combined six times. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said they acted in self-defence, and the grand jury agreed.
Detective Brett Hankison, the officer charged with wanton endangerment, fired 10 times from outside.
Mr Cosgrove, in his interview with police investigators, said the officers knocked on the door for about 90 seconds.
Mr Hankison estimated the knocking was more brief.
"This went on for probably 30 to 45 seconds of banging and announcing, knocking and announcing," he said.
Witness accounts
Multiple witnesses told reporters they did not hear any police announcement. The search warrant did not require them to knock, but police said they chose to do so anyway.
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, the special prosecutor in the case, has said only one witness has verified the police account of their announcement, and that witness changed his story.
The witness first told investigators in March that he did not hear police identify themselves but two month later, in a follow-up interview with investigators, the witness said he heard officers knock and announce, the Louisville Courier Journal reported, citing investigative documents.
Mr Cameron revealed in a Louisville television interview on Tuesday that he recommended only the one endangerment charge that was returned, saying the grand jury had the responsibility to bring additional charges if it believed they were warranted.
Prosecutors have wide leeway in how to present evidence to a grand jury, which then decides whether to bring charges. Nine of the 12 grand jurors must agree on a charge in order to return an indictment.
Hollywood celebrities and professional athletes have supported street protests calling for the arrest of the officers and demanding justice for Taylor, a 26-year-old Black emergency medical technician.
The Taylor family has won a $12 million wrongful death settlement from the city of Louisville but still asked for the evidence to be made public, questioning whether Mr Cameron sought to shield the officers from criminal liability.
The Kentucky governor, Louisville's mayor and even a member of the grand jury itself had called for the proceedings to be released, increasing the pressure on Mr Cameron, a Black Republican whom President Donald Trump has praised as a rising star in the party.
In the end, it was the judge overseeing Mr Hankison's case who ordered the recordings to be entered in the court file, making them public.
