Mattlingly continues:
Mattingly said Floyd’s death was a case of misconduct and the abuse of power. Taylor’s death was neither, he said.
Regardless of any connection to a narcotics investigation, Mattingly said police weren’t there to act as the judge, jury and executioners that night.
“What we were being was someone who's defending their lives against gunfire coming at them,” he said.
But, Mattingly said, police weren't at Taylor's house by "happenstance."
"There's a reason the police were there that night," he said. "And if you're law-abiding citizen, the only contact you'll probably ever have with the police is running into them in Thorntons or if you get a speeding ticket. Other than that, unless you know them, you're not really dealing with the police.
"And I think that's part of the problem because the people who say there's all this injustice and all that are the people who deal with the police in negative connotations. So naturally, their view of the police is going to be skewed and not good."
Mattingly also said he believes Walker knew police were at the door, partly because you don’t have “that loud of a knock, that loud of an announce, that long — and people not know it’s police.”
“Everybody knows the police knock,” Mattingly said. “When that took place for that long — and they had that much time to think and react and formulate a plan — I don’t know he didn’t hear us. We were talking 20 feet away through a thin metal door.
"So, my opinion, yes, he heard. But I’m not the end-all, be-all.”
Mattingly said he no longer expects to return to the Louisville Metro Police Department, despite initially wanting to return to work.
Asked what changed, the sergeant pointed to leadership, including the mayor’s office, and the public perception of him by some. He said his name has been so smeared that it likely would be unsafe for his family for him to return.
Plus, he said he’d reached his 20-year mark with the department, giving him the possibility of retiring.
He doesn’t plan to do that, however, until after LMPD's Professional Standards Unit investigation is completed in the officers’ conduct that night at Taylor’s apartment.
“I don’t want people to think we’re hiding,” he said.
Mattingly added his plan in the future is to try to help others, including police officers, who face similar types of incidents.
Mattingly fired some of his sharpest criticisms at Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and his administration.
He said he begged the mayor's office to release evidence or factual information but was told officials didn’t want to “set precedent” for future cases.
“My response to that was, ‘So you’re willing to let the city burn down to not set a precedent for another case?’” Mattingly recalled. "A lot of (the) flames that have come up, a lot of this stuff could have been diverted. Now, would people still have a problem with it? Yes. But I think with the truth coming out, then you wouldn’t have as much distrust."
As Taylor’s death started to gain attention, Mattingly said “each day that passed” without misinformation being rectified was “adding fuel to the fire.”
He pointed specifically to claims that Taylor was asleep, that officers were at the wrong home or that Taylor didn’t know Jamarcus Glover, Taylor's ex-boyfriend who was a main target in the narcotics investigation the led to the attempted search of Taylor's home, which he said would have been possible to clarify without harming the case.
"It fell on deaf ears, and politics, in my opinion, played a big part of it," he said, declining to elaborate on who specifically he urged to speak out.
“There’s a reason that the fire wasn’t put out early, that he (Fischer) let it simmer until it got to where it was at, and then it got out of control, and I don’t think he knew how to reel it back in,” Mattingly said.
Asked what message he would have for Fischer, Mattingly said: “I don’t appreciate him coming in my hospital room and talking about my son. And then turning around and never addressing the fact that my son’s life was threatened and never being the type of leader he should have been, standing behind what we did.”
Mattingly specifically called out Crump for being an “agitator.”
Crump came to Louisville, “stirring up all this stuff and then leaving your city. He didn't have to pick the pieces up,” Mattingly said. “He simply comes in, causes problems, throws out all these either direct lies, or these innuendos, and leaves people hanging, and then he disappears."
Mattingly said if city leadership had quashed misinformation sooner, people would have a “totally different” understanding of what happened.
“Would everybody be pleased? No,” he said. “But you can’t please everybody.”
Breonna Taylor shooting: Louisville officer Jonathan Mattingly speaks
