‘Somebody shot my girlfriend’: 911 call in police shooting

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The boyfriend of a Kentucky woman shot by police in her home told a 911 operator “somebody shot my girlfriend” after officers burst into the apartment.

The 911 call Kenneth Walker made after Breonna Taylor was shot during a warrant search by Louisville police was released to media outlets Thursday.

Taylor, a 26-year-old black emergency medical tech, was shot eight times on March 13 after narcotics detectives knocked down the front door. No drugs were found in the home.

Walker can be heard on the call crying and calling Taylor’s name.

“Somebody kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend,” Walker tells a dispatcher. He says Taylor is on the ground and that she was shot in the stomach.

“There’s blood, oh my God,” he says during the two-minute call. He later hangs up on the dispatcher, who tried to call him back but got no answer.

Attention on Taylor’s death has intensified after her family sued the police department earlier this month. The case has attracted national headlines alongside the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery in a Georgia neighborhood in February.

Last week, prosecutors dropped an attempted murder charge against Walker for shooting an officer who entered the apartment. Also last week, Louisville’s police chief announced his retirement and the mayor changed police warrant search policies.

Walker told police investigators that he could hear knocking on the night of the shooting but did not hear police announce themselves.

He said he was “scared to death,” so he grabbed his gun and when the door was knocked down, he fired a shot. He said his intention was to fire a warning shot downward toward the ground.

Prosecutors said last week that after police fired into the apartment, they retreated from the area and that’s when Walker called 911.

Federal and state officials are reviewing the police department’s internal investigation of the shooting, which was completed last week.