Former Louisville Metro Police Department Sergeant Jonathan Mattingly’s book about the police killing of Breonna Taylor will be released two days after the second anniversary of Taylor’s death.
The 256-page book, now titled “12 Seconds in the Dark: A Police Officer’s Firsthand Account of the Breonna Taylor Raid,” was available for pre-order on Amazon on Wednesday for $28.99. It will be released on March 15 of next year.
“You might think you know what happened in the tragic shooting of Breonna Taylor, but no one knows that better than the lead officer on the case, Sergeant John Mattingly,” reads part of the description on the book’s Amazon page. “However, with the full support of the mainstream media, Black Lives Matter activists and other leftists groups immediately pounced on the tragedy, exploiting Breonna’s death and twisting the story — in some cases, telling outright lies — to bolster a shameful ‘All Cops are Bastards’ narrative and radical ‘Defund the Police’ agenda.”
In a post on Instagram, Ju’Niyah Palmer, Taylor’s sister, condemned the release: “PLEASE GO GIVE REVIEWS ON THIS BOOK! ITS THE NERVE OF THIS MAN FOR IT TO BE RELEASED TWO DAYS AFTER YOU KILLED IN ON HER TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!”
During the raid on Breonna Taylor's apartment, Mattingly was shot in the leg as the door was breached and fired six rounds. The other two officers who discharged their weapons in the raid — Det. Brett Hankison and Det. Myles Cosgrove (who fired the shot that was determined to have killed Taylor)— were fired from the force for shooting without a clear target. LMPD’s investigation exonerated Mattingly. He retired from the force earlier this year.
Mattingly’s book was initially slated to be published by Post Hill Press under the title “The Fight for Truth: The Inside Story Behind the Breonna Taylor Tragedy.” But facing backlash, Simon & Schuster, which distributes Post Hill Press titles, said it would not distribute Mattingly’s book.
Last month, DW Books — the new publishing arm of the conservative media outlet The Daily Wire — said it would publish Mattingly’s book.
On Wednesday, Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro announced the pre-sale of “12 Seconds in the Dark” at the end of an opinion article that railed against the “lies” promulgated by the media about the Kyle Rittenhouse case.
“We at the Daily Wire are fighting back. We have launched our own publishing wing in order to bring you the truth — the stories the media seeks to silence,” he wrote.
The description on Amazon described Mattingly’s book as a “gritty and suspenseful true story” that would take readers inside LMPD’s actions that night while “debunking lie after lie about what happened.”
Among the things the book would set straight, according to the description, was that “Taylor’s boyfriend — the suspect named in the warrant — most certainly knew it was the police who were at his door, despite falsely claiming the police did not announce or identify themselves.”
While Breonna Taylor was named in the warrant, her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, was not mentioned in the warrant.
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