Kenneth Walker’s friends say his goal was to ’protect Breonna at any cost’

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - Kenneth Walker’s friends say he’s facing an attempted murder charge simply because he was protecting the woman he loved.

Walker was inside his girlfriend’s apartment on March 13 when narcotics officers arrived to serve a no-knock warrant. Walker fired his gun, and officers fired theirs, killing Walker’s girlfriend, 26-year-old Breonna Taylor.

Taylor’s and Walker’s family and friends call them Bre and Kenny. They said what happened in March doesn’t touch the surface of who they are as people or partners.

Taylor’s cousin and best friend, Trina Curry, said she would rarely leave the house, but when she did, it was with Walker and her cousin.

“The Kenny we know is loving, caring, goofy, and he was all about Breonna,” Curry said. Their close friends said it’s been that way ever since the pair were best friends in high school. Preonia Flakes said she admired the couple.

”I was always third wheeling," she said. “I would be like, ‘I love you guys. When are you guys going to get married? When’s the baby coming?'"

Flakes and Curry said their dreams were snatched from them on March 13.

“It’s sad they didn’t get to achieve what they wanted, -- getting married, having a family they were planning," Flakes said. “They already had the name picked out.”

Lawyers for Taylor’s family said her death was the result of a botched raid that never should have happened.

"He always said he was going to protect Breonna at any cost,” Curry said. “As a man, he felt like that was his job.”

Curry said Walker thought someone was breaking in to the apartment when plainclothes officers entered the home, prompting Walker to fire his gun, wounding one of the officers. Officers fired more than 20 shots, according to lawyers for Taylor’s family.

Walker was charged with attempted murder of a police officer, but was released on home incarceration two weeks later. His lawyer filed a motion to drop the charges because, according to the lawsuit, an officer testifying before a grand jury never mentioned Taylor’s name or the fact that police shot her eight times.

The lawsuit claims Walker told officers he fired his gun because he didn’t know who had “burst into the apartment,” but that officer left that, too, out of the grand jury testimony.

Walker’s lawyer, Rob Eggert, claims the picture presented to the grand jury completely mischaracterized the events that took place at Taylor’s apartment that resulted her death.

Taylor’s friend from the University of Kentucky, Elysia Bowman, said she felt as though she had a heart attack when she learned of Taylor’s death. Bowman said she watched her friend’s relationship blossom into everything Taylor dreamed of.

“Imagine your crush becoming your lover,” Bowman said. “Everything you worked so hard for to get this person to pay attention to you and love you. (Walker) got that from her and they finally start planning their future together and it’s snatched from (them)."

”He says it all the time, like, ‘When it is all over what does he have?'" Flakes said. "The love of his life is no longer here.”

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