Simon & Schuster has said that it will not be distributing a book by one of the police officers who shot Breonna Taylor, after a small publisher whose books are distributed through S&S announced the book to widespread criticism.
The Fight for Truth: The Inside Story Behind the Breonna Taylor Tragedy is by Sgt Jonathan Mattingly, a Louisville, Kentucky, officer who shot Taylor and was wounded in the raid on her home in March last year.
Mattingly is still employed by the Louisville Police Department and was the first officer to enter Taylor’s apartment after midnight on 13 March 2020, as part of a narcotics investigation.
Mattingly fired at least one of the six shots that hit Taylor, according to an FBI ballistics report, but not the one that killed her.
In September, he was cleared by a grand jury, alongside another officer who fired the lethal shot, Detective Myles Cosgrove.
Hours later, after widespread criticism and campaigns to complain to S&S head office, the publisher issued a second statement distancing itself from Mattingly’s book.
“Like much of the American public, earlier today Simon & Schuster learned of plans by distribution client Post Hill Press to publish a book by Jonathan Mattingly,” the publisher said. »
