He was one of the three officers who opened fire on Taylor
Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, one of the police officers who was involved in the fatal shooting 0f Breonna Taylor in a ‘no-knock’ raid in March last year, is writing a book about the incident.
Mattingly was part of a raid on Taylor and her boyfriend Kenneth Walker’s flat, along with detectives Brett Hankison and Myles Cosgrove, when Walker shot Mattingly in self-defence, unaware that he was a police officer. The three officers then opened fire, killing Taylor in the process.
Whilst Cosgrove and Hankison were subsequently fired from the Louisville Metro Police Department though, Mattingly was not punished at all and was cleared of any police violations.
Now he’s decided to write a book about the night in question and the fallout as a result of Taylor’s death.
Entitled ‘The Fight For Truth: The Inside Story Behind the Breonna Taylor Tragedy’, the book was originally meant to be distributed by publishing company Simon & Schuster. However they have now announced that they will not be involved in the book’s publication, which will now be published by Tennessee-based Post Hill press, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.
As the Daily Mail reports, Simon & Schuster released a statement saying: ‘Like much of the American public, earlier today Simon & Schuster learned of plans by distribution client Post Hill Press to publish a book by Jonathan Mattingly. We have subsequently decided not be involved in the distribution of this book.’
Unsurprisingly, the news of Mattingly’s book has been widely criticised and met with bemusement by many as to how one of the officers involved in Taylor’s death will end up profiting from the tragedy.
Kentucky Democrat Rep. Attica Scott tweeted: ‘Stay focused, y’all. People love to profit off of Black pain and tragedy. It sells.’
Speaking in a previous interview though, Mattingly said: ‘This had nothing to do with race. Nothing at all… because this is not relatable to George Floyd. This is nothing like that. It’s not Ahmaud Arbery. It’s nothing like it. These are two totally different types of incidences. It’s not a race thing like people wanna try to make it to be. It’s not.’
He added: ‘This is not us going, hunting somebody down. This is not kneeling on a neck. It’s nothing like that.’
Along with the fact that Mattingly believes Taylor’s death had “nothing at all” to do with race, and that he’s writing a book about it, he also sued Walker in October 2020 for being shot by him. Just in case you were in any doubt about this guy and his moral compass.
