this is "nightline." >> tonight -- >> breonna, she couldn't say anything but she did scream at some point in time when she got hit. that's the last, you know, sounds that she made. >> inside the night breonna taylor was shot. >> what did i do? banging at the door, she said who is it, they started shooting! >> and a movement caught fire. >> say her name! >> breonna taylor! >> three grand jurors coming together. 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. a lot of people would say, man, that seems a little bit excessive.

>> a family still hoping for justice. "nightline," "say her name, breonna taylor," will be right back. new nyquil severe honey is maximum strength cold and flu medicine with soothing honey-licious taste. nyquil honey. the nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever best sleep with a cold medicine. your happy place. find your breaking point. then break it. every emergen-c gives you a potent blend of nutrients so you can emerge your best with emergen-c.

♪ good evening and happy new year. i'm janai norman. thanks for joining us. 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 >>. bullets into the front wall from the next apartment where the shooting happened -- >> come out with your hands up! >> 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? there was banging at the door, she said who is it, you started shooting. what is this about?

we're both just workers -- >> keep walking, stop, keep walking! >> aah! aah! >> stop screaming. >> don't come off that car. you come off that car again, we'll 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, and 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! >> breonna taylor! >> look at breonna! >> junior. >> no, that was senior prom. junior prom, she had the blue dress. that's junior prom. she looks so good. >> to know her is to love her. she's so much like me, but she's so much better than me. >> she's 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 melt on twitter. she was just goofy. she was always posting funny stuff.

just chilling, playing uno, you know. watching a movie. she was falling asleep, so was i. just 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 narcotic search warrant. >> i remember banging on the door, open hand, hard smacks. bam bam bam bam. first time didn't announce, just hoping she'd come to the door. >> kenny says he never heard that announcement. the police, of course, say they did. >> breonna said, who is it? nobody said anything. at this time we're getting up, putting on clothes to see who it is. there was another loud bang at the door. >> i yelled, police, search warrant. police, search warrant. a total of six knocks on the door while doing this. >> it's too late for knocks on the door.

i grab my gun. we proceed to answer the door. >> i look back at my lieutenant book here, he goes, go ahead, hit it. >> when we get right in the doorway of the bedroom, the door flies open. >> i could see the living room to my wife. i could see the tan couches, living room, door. >> any lights on in the apartment? >> no, tv back there. we have lights on guns. >> protect breonna, protect myself. that's what was going through my head. >> my eyes went straight to the barrel of this gun. i believed see the tip of it. my eyes focused in on it. >> kenny is a legal gun owner. >> i let out one shot at the ground. >> he wasn't shooting at the ground. he was stretched out, two hands, looking at me. our postures were the same. >> i figured intruders. i couldn't see anybody, pitch black in there. >> i reached my leg, i could

feel blood. that's my femoral artery. everything happened in seconds. boom boom, returned four shots. >> what was your intent? >> stop the threat, whatever that was. >> hail of gunfire. i grabbed breonna and i dropped to the ground. and i was holding her hand while we went down. >> one shot, 30 shots in return. a lot of people would look and say, man, that assembles a little bit excessive. >> it does seem like a shot. are 30 shots normal? on this situation, i don't know how many were necessary. that's a hard one to tell, because the initial shot barrage was so quick. >> and then all hell breaks loose. and 32 shots are fired into the apartment. >> detective miles cosgrove was directly behind matly. prank hankinson told authorities he went around the side of the apartment and unloaded 10 rounds. >> i returned fire at the angle i believed him to still be shooting from. i could see muzzle flashes and

hear -- the fire increased almost like an automatic-type weapon. >> kenny fires the first bullet, didn't fire another one. is it possible hankinson mistakes his colleagues' gunfire for fire being returned inside? >> 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, you know, sounds she made. >> anybody left in the apartment? >> nobody, my girlfriend's dead. >> how's your girlfriend dead? >> i don't know. somebody -- there was banging at the door, she said who is it, they started shooting. >> no. no, we announced three times, police search warrant. >> walker is charged with attempted murder of a police officer. >> a man accused of shooting a metro police officer is out of jail -- >> 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, but 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 just going to be so hard. >> we was going to have to get legal help to get answers. >> we filed that 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! >> and if we don't say breonna taylor's name loudly enough and long enough, then the next breonna taylor may be your daughter. you barely know they're working. new febreze fade defy plug works differently. it's the first plug-in with built-in technology to digitally control how much scent is released to smell 1st day fresh for 50 days. it even tells you when it's ready to be refilled.

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♪ the 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 already filed against police officers who killed breonna taylor -- >> in the matter of commonwealth of kentucky versus braet hankinson -- >> people were there on the edge of their seat waiting to see something that they'd been fighting for, fighting as hard as anybody could fight. >> the jefferson county grand jury charges as follows. >> they're bringing three counts

of wanton endangerment, all against brett hankison. >> he wantonly 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. >> that's it? >> my wife cried. i almost couldn't talk at first. it was just -- you know 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 does not have anything to do with death. i said, tamecka, do you know who the wanton endangerment charges

were for? and she cries and send, 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? just kick a door down and bang bang bang bang and get away with it? >> david cameron, you did not do your job! >> no justice, no peace! say her name! >> breonna taylor! >> say her name! >> breonna taylor! >> what do we want? >> justice! >> 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 that mattingly and cosgrove were justified in their return of deadly fire. >> i began to question whether daniel cameron actually even presented charges on behalf of breonna to the grand jury. >> then a juror comes forward anonymously and files a motion to release the tapes from the proceedings. >> that 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. hankinson. >> everybody ready? >> yes. >> yes. >> yes. >> 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 their 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 stonewa stonewalled. situations where they ask about more body >> i said, we have time, because i felt like if i was going to give my right judgment as a juror, that i needed to be presented 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. >> 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 of the information -- >> they didn't go into any

details about what any additional homicide or murder charges could be. >> the grand jurors are saying, you didn't give us anything else, it's a gotcha moment. >> we asked if other charges could be brought against, and 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? >> 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 they were going -- there should be other charges that the grand

jury should be advised of. i know i will take a lot of criticism for that, but we did the right thing. >> ahmaud arbery died. the justice system said, give it time. george floyd died. the justice system said, give it time. breonna taylor died and the justice system dead, 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 the 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 overdue. >> she always said she was going to be famous, but we never imagined her not being here to see herself famous.

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♪ . >> that's "nightline" for this evening. i'm janai norman. we'll see you right back here same time next week. good night, and happy new year.