♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight -- >> breonna, she couldn't say anything, she was scared to death as was i. but she did scream at some point in time when she got hit. that's the last sounds that she made. >> walk straight back out! >> inside the night breonna taylor was shot. >> what did i do? banging at the door, she said who is it, and they started shooting. >> and a movement caught fire. >> say her name! >> breonna taylor! >> now three grand jurors coming together for the first time, taking us inside the jury room and what they say really happened. >> your reaction when you heard that? >> i came out of my chair. i said, he just lied. >> one police officer telling his side of the story. >> there's one shot.

then 30 shots in return. that's a lot of people saying, man, that seems a little bit excessive. >> a family still hoping for justice. this special edition of "nightline," "say her name, breonna taylor," will be right back. try boost® high protein... -with 20 grams of protein for muscle health- -versus only 16 grams in ensure® high protein. and now enjoy boost® high protein in café mocha flavor. your shoulder seems to be healing nicely. i'm sorry baby... i don't want you to play with that... (singing) twinkle, twinkle little star. how i wonder what you are... how are you doing? schedule a video visit with your doctor. kaiser permanente. thrive.

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breonna taylor's legacy, her name. a rallying cry. her picture, a symbol for justice. tonight we look into the court case against the officers who shot her. a number of grand jurors sharing frustration, taking issue with what they say were lapses in the evidence they saw in this abc news "courier journal" exclusive. >> 3rd division responding to a 1030 -- >> bullet holes through it and through the front wall from the next apartment where the shooting happened -- >> police, put your hands up! have you been hit by a bullet? >> no. >> stay back! i'll send this dog on you! >> walk back to me! >> put your hands on your head! >> what did i do? what did i do? >> let's get behind this car for cover. >> what did i do? banging at the door, she said

who is it, they started shooting! what is this about? >> keep walking! stop! keep walking! >> stop screaming. >> don't come off that car. you come off that car again, i'm going to put you on the ground. >> please don't let her be dead. please, god, don't let her be dead. >> this is a story about a death that didn't need to happen. >> breonna taylor had a job, she had a career, she had dreams, she was going places. none of that mattered on a night in which some police officers came to her door, kicked it in, shot her to death multiple times. >> it's a tale of two points of view, from opposite sides of the same door. and those really reflect the

view of america. the police point of view and the point of view of black citizens who feel they're under siege. >> say her name! >> breonna taylor! >> say her name! >> briaeonna taylor! >> look at breonna! >> junior. >> no, that was senior prom. junior prom she had the blue dress. that's junior prom. she looked so good. >> to know her is to love her. she's so much like me, but she's so much better than me. >> breonna and tamecka were really close. breonna pushed everyone else in her family to be the best versions of themselves. >> if you ain't got a breonna? breonna! >> she was the star of the show for the family, basically. she just kept everybody going. >> after she graduated high

school, she started pursuing a nursing career at uk. >> she was making plans to settle down with a long-time boyfriend. kenny walker. >> we actually met on twitter. she was just goofy. she was always posting funny stuff. just chilling, playing uno. you know, watching a movie. then she was falling asleep, so was i. a couple of minutes after she had been sleeping, there was a loud bang at the door. >> seven police officers show up at breonna taylor's door in the middle of the night to execute a narcotics search warrant. >> i remember banging on the door, open hand, hard smacks. bam bam bam bam. first time didn't announce, hoping she'd come to the door. >> kenny says he never heard that announcement. police say they did. >> breonna said, who is it? nobody said anything. at this time we're getting up to

put on clothes to see who it is. then there's another loud bang at the door. >> i yelled, police, search warrant. police, search warrant. a total of six different knocks at the door. >> too late for anybody to be knocking on the door, so i grabbed my gun. then we proceed to go answer the door. >> finally i look back at my lieutenant, who's back here. he goes, go ahead and hit it. >> when we get right in the doorway of that room, the door flies open. >> i could see the living room to my right. i could see the tan couches, living room, door. >> any lights on? >> no, just the tv back there. we have lights on guns. as i step in the door frame to clear the hallway, i can see two figures. >> protect breonna, protect myself. that's what was going through my head. >> my eyes went straight to the barrel of this gun. i could see the tip of it. my eyes just focused in on it. >> kenny is a legal gun owner. >> i let out one shot, you know, at the ground. >> he wasn't shooting at the ground. he was in a stretched-out, two

hands, looking straight at me. our postures were the same looking at each other. >> figuring it's intruders, someone trying to break in and harm us. i couldn't see anybody, pitch black in there. >> i could feel a handful of blood, i thought, that's my femoral artery. everything happened in milliseconds. boom boom boom boom, returned four shots. >> what was your intent? >> stop the threat, what was that was. i wanted to get home to my fami family. >> it was just a hail of gunfire. i grabbed breonna, dropped to the ground, hole are her hand. >> one shot, then 30 shots in return. a lot of people would say, that seems a little bit excessive. >> it does seem a lot. are 30 shots normal? on this situation, i don't know how many were necessary. i mean, that's a hard one to tell, because the initial shot barrage were so quick. >> then all heck breaks loose. and 32 shots are fired into the apartment. >> detective cosgrove was

directly behind mattingly. brett hang kin son told authorities he went around the side of the apartment and unloaded 10 rounds. >> i returned fire at the angle that i believed him to still be shooting, from because i could still see muzzle flashes and hear and the fire increased, almost like a -- almost like a automatic type weapon. >> kenny fires the first bullet and didn't fire another one. it's possible hang kin son mistakes his colleagues' gunfire. >> breonna couldn't say anything, she was scared to death, as was i. she did scream at some point in time, when she got hit. that's the last sounds she made. >> anybody left in the apartment? >> nobody, my girlfriend's dead. >> how's your girlfriend dead? >> i don't know. somebody was banging at the door, and she said who is it, and they started shooting. >> no. no, we announced three times,

police search warrant. >> walker's charged with attempted murder of a police officer. a man accused of shooting a police sergeant out of jail on home incarceration. >> two months after kenny is arrested the charges are dropped against him. >> all three of these men have been placed on administrative reassignment. >> after the shooting, the three officers who fired their weapon, according to the department, are immediately put on what's called administrative reassignment. which basically just means you're not working, that you're getting paid while they figure this thing out. >> for us to just have to find the strength to move on without her is going to be so hard. >> we was going to have to get legal help to get answers. >> we filed a wrongful death lawsuit to make sure that we could get the truth out about what happened to breonna taylor. because we did not believe we were going to get the truth from

the government agencies that were over this investigation. >> the breonna taylor case didn't explode into the american consciousness until after the death of george floyd. >> hands up, don't shoot! >> everyone sort of perked up and went, yeah, that happened here in louisville. >> will we take advantage of this moment? can we make this a movement? can we transform the pain that we are feeling and turn it into power? >> breonna taylor! >> say her name. say her name. >> breonna is bigger than breonna. >> breonna taylor! >> she now has become an american symbol. >> breonna taylor! >> if we don't say breonna taylor's name loudly enough and long enough, then the next breonna taylor may be your daughter. shall i put her in snow mode?

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♪ that historic settlement in the breonna taylor case -- >> taylor's family has now reached a $12 million wrongful death settlement with the city of louisville -- >> one of the largest settlements in u.s. history involving allegations of excessive force by police. >> our city, louisville, is ready and waiting -- >> the mayor of louisville declaring a state of emergency -- >> very concerned about the final decision from kentucky attorney general -- >> whether charges will be filed against the police officers who killed breonna taylor. >> in the matter of commonwealth of kentucky versus brett hankison -- >> people were there on the edge of their seat, waiting to hear something that they'd been

fighting for, fighting as hard as anybody could fight. >> the jefferson county grand jury charges as follows. county one. count one. wanton endangerment in the first degree -- >> they're bringing three counts of wanton endangerment, all against brett hangi son. >> shot a gun into the apartment occupied by initials c.e. >> the charges aren't for endangering breonna taylor or kenneth walker, they're for endangering her neighbors, her white neighbors, who live next door. their unit was also pierced with several bullets that night. >> that concludes the business of the grand jury sitting for jefferson county in september 2020. thank you, ladies and gentlemen. you may be excused. >> my wife cried. i almost couldn't talk at first. it was just -- this part's over. i knew it wasn't over, i knew

this was just the beginning. >> brett hankison pleaded not guilty to the charges. >> tamecka immediately breaks down, because she knows that wanton endangerment doesn't have anything to do with death. i said, tamecka, do you know who the wanton endangerment charges were for? and she cries and she said, the neighbors. and you could just see the little bit of wind that she had, it really did just come out of her at that point. it was almost like opening up those initial wounds from march 13th. >> that's it? >> how did they just get away with this? kick the door down and bang bang bang and get away with it? >> you failed her! you failed her! do your job! >> no justice! >> no peace! >> say her name. >> breonna taylor! >> say her name! >> breonna taylor!

>> what breonna taylor's mother got was not justice, and we're going to continue until we get justice. because change, real change, is absolutely necessary. >> that is injustice. >> it's amazing to have all these people standing up for her. saying her name. >> after people go through this initial shock, they begin to hone in on some of the things that were said in this announcement by daniel cameron. >> while there are six possible homicide charges under kentucky law, these charges are not applicable to the facts before us because our investigations show and the grand jury agreed mattingly and cosgrove were justified in the return of deadly fire. >> i began to question whether daniel cameron actually even presented charges on behalf of breonna to the grand jury. and then a juror comes forward

anonymously and files a motion to release the tapes from the proceedings. >> the juror's attorney saying cameron misrepresented deliberations. >> my client wants to make sure the truth gets out. >> after making it seem like it was solely the jurors' decision to not bring other charges, cameron then goes on a local fox news station. >> your question is about whether we recommended any murder charges against cosgrove and mattingly. and the answer is no. ultimately, our judgment is that the charge that we could prove at trial beyond a reasonable doubt was for wanton endangerment against mr. hankison. >> everybody ready? >> yes. >> yes. >> yes. >> and mark it. >> we've agreed to protect your identities. how would you like to be referred to? >> juror 1. >> juror 2. >> juror 3. >> take me back to that news

conference. attorney general cameron essentially says -- >> the grand jury agreed mattingly and cosgrove were justified in the return of deadly fire. >> your reaction when you heard that? >> i came out of my chair. i said, he just lied. >> liar. those were the words that came out of my mouth. >> this is a grand jury that was inquisitive. on so many things they were stonewalling. situations where they asked about more body cameras. >> we're not going to show all the video because of time, but sergeant casse -- what's that? >> i said, we have time. >> i said we have time, because i felt like i was going to give my right judgment as a juror, that i needed to present it all the evidence, and they didn't. >> when you heard that wanton endangerment was the only charge that was being presented, what was the reaction in the room? >> it was an uproar. i was livid. i couldn't believe it. >> we were dismayed.

there was a big gasp in the room. probably more than two or three jurors said, is that all? >> our team walked them through every homicide offense, and also presented all the information. >> they didn't go into any details about what any additional homicides or murder charges could be. >> the grand jury saying, you didn't give us anything else. it's a gotcha moment. >> we asked if other charges could be brought against them. all they said was, no, nothing we could make stick. and that the officers had the right to defend themselves because they had been fired upon. >> in your mind, should there have been more charges brought this. >> oh, yes. undoubtedly. >> i thought one would be murder. >> i thought there was going to be a lot more charges for a lot more officers. >> the fact that they didn't get to even deliberate on charges on behalf of breonna is a huge miscarriage of justice. >> abc news reached out to attorney general cameron, who

declined our request for comment. but in an interview with abc bowling green affiliate wbko, cameron stood by his decision. >> it was not our judgment that there were going -- there should be other charges that the grand jury should be advised of. i know i take a lot of criticism for that, but we did the right thing. >> ahmad arbery died and the justice system said, give it time. george floyd died and the justice system said, give it time. breonna taylor died, and the justice system said, give it time. people gave it time. and then -- basically nothing. >> if i had to share one final thought about breonna, it would be that she was one who brought everybody together. >> on the one hand, you hate

that it's her face that's on this cause. but on the other hand, it's a cause that will definitely give some change that's been well overdue. >> she always said she was going to be famous, but we never imagined her not being here to see herself famous. >> i hate that she had to die -- to be great. gets to work faster, making easy work of tough messes. dawn is a go-to grease-cleaner throughout the kitchen, too. keep a bottle in the laundry room to pre-treat greasy stains. and keep dawn in the garage to lift grease off car rims. it's even gentle enough to clean wildlife affected by oil. dawn's grease cleaning power takes care of tough grease wherever it shows up. scrub less, save more...with dawn

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♪ that's "nightline." you can watch all our full episodes on hulu. we'll see you right back here, same time next week. thanks for staying up with