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’I can no longer remain silent’: Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend reveals how he is ‘haunted’ by her killing

 (REUTERS)
(REUTERS)

Kenneth Walker has spoken out about the shooting of his girlfriend, Breonna Taylor, saying he can “no longer remain silent”.

Taylor, a decorated Emergency Medical Technician, 26, was shot dead by police officers in her apartment on 13 March during a drug raid in connection to her ex-boyfriend.

Mr Walker, who was at home with Taylor on the night she was killed, is “haunted” by the experience, Steve Romine, one of Mr Walkers attorney’s, told NBC News.

"When you are shot at and when you see a loved one basically executed in front of you, you never recover from that," Mr Romines said. "It is something that haunts him every single night."

The aspiring nurse's boyfriend said he was inside the apartment with her when police attempted to enter without identifying themselves.

Mr Walker, who is a licenced gun owner, is said to have fired his gun once when officers attempted to forcibly enter the apartment, according to police.

Officers returned fire and Taylor was shot at least eight times. Mr Walker said he asks himself daily why he is alive and Taylor is not, NBC News reported.

"Imagine how someone has to feel in a situation like this? Like, why me? They were both there," Frederick Moore III, another of Walker’s attorneys said in an interview last week. "They were both shot at 30 times."

Police have said they fired inside Taylor's home only after they were fired upon by Mr Walker. According to police, a bullet fired by Mr Walker struck and injured a Louisville Metro Police Department sergeant.

"All that goes down and then he's arrested. He didn't get to go to her funeral,” Mr Romines added.

Mr Walker was charged with attempted murder of a police officer and assault, however, the charges were dropped by the prosecution in May after Taylor’s case drew national attention.

The 28-year-old has since filed a lawsuit against Louisville Police Department for police misconduct. His lawyers are seeking to make him immune from further prosecution.

"The charges brought against me were meant to silence me and cover up Breonna's murder," Mr Walker said at a news conference on 1 September. "For her and those that I love, I can no longer remain silent."

Mr Walker and his lawyers have said they believe he would still be in prison if it wasn’t for the vast attention brought to his case by professional athletes, celebrities, and politicians.

"We know it could have happened because it happens every day all over the country," Mr Romines said.

"There's all kinds of people falsely charged by the police who don't have the resources to properly defend it. And they get put in a position where about all they can do is just take some sort of plea to something they didn't do just to get out of jail."

A spokesman for the police department, Seargent Lamont Washington, told NBC News on Thursday it does not comment on pending litigation.

The family is seeking reprimand for the killing in their own lawsuit, accusing officers of wrongful death, excessive force, and gross negligence.

Detective Brett Hankison, one of three officers who have been assigned to administrative duty after firing their weapons at Taylor, was fired in June.

Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother, told NBC News she was supportive of the young couple and said it was hard to imagine one without the other.

"He’s had his heart ripped out of his chest and most days thinks he can't go on," Mr Palmer told NBC news. "I hate that for him, for all of us,” she said.

The couple met on Twitter and had been friends for several years before they started dating, they had plans for marriage and purchase a home together and have a baby, according to the outlet.

"He has always told me he was going to marry her," Ms Palmer said in a recent interview. "They reminded you of two little old people yelling at each other trying to tell each other what to do — mostly her trying to tell him what to do — but you couldn’t break them apart.”

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