The Republican Ladies’s Membership of South Central Kentucky held a dinner occasion Tuesday at Anna’s Greek Restaurant in Bowling Inexperienced, Ky., for Jonathan Mattingly, a former sergeant with the Louisville Metro Police Division who was among the many officers who carried out the botched no-knock raid at Taylor’s Louisville residence in the hunt for her ex-boyfriend. Mattingly, who was one of many officers who fired into the 26-year-old Black girl’s residence the night time she died, was cleared of wrongdoing in an inner police investigation and retired in 2021 to develop into a conservative writer and pundit.

Cayce Johnson, a Bowling Inexperienced resident who was eating at Anna’s on Tuesday, advised The Washington Publish that after Mattingly was launched with “raucous applause” from the occasion’s attendees one ground above them, the previous sergeant performed a presentation that includes footage and pictures of the night time Taylor was killed. After the lights have been dimmed within the restaurant, diners who weren’t affiliated with the occasion may hear and see the graphic descriptions of Taylor’s killing, Johnson stated.

“You might hear the gunshots within the footage,” Johnson, 34, stated Saturday. “Our dinner was fully hijacked. We couldn’t hear ourselves at that time.” She added, “It makes me nauseous to consider now.”

Katelyn Jones, one other Bowling Inexperienced resident eating at Anna’s, recounted her frustration in a Fb submit about how the group was that includes “one of many cops that killed Breonna Taylor there and had some type of loud, tribute/rally to assist him whereas we have been consuming.”

“It was extraordinarily disrespectful disturbing and loud,” she wrote of the footage of the gunshots. “It was so loud and no one desires to listen to or see police footage, particularly of the homicide of an harmless Black girl whereas they’re making an attempt to get pleasure from their meal.”

Loss of life penalty dropped for man charged in botched no-knock raid

Representatives with the Republican Ladies’s Membership of South Central Kentucky didn’t instantly reply to The Publish’s requests for remark early Saturday. The GOP group’s Fb web page was inaccessible Saturday morning. Earlier than the occasion, the group stated in an announcement to Spectrum Information in Louisville this week that it had invited Mattingly to talk at its occasion “to acquire a firsthand account” of what occurred the night time Taylor was killed.

“These occasions could also be controversial; nonetheless, we consider Sgt. Mattingly has the appropriate to share his expertise,” the group stated in an announcement to Spectrum. “Different people with firsthand expertise referring to this case are welcome to request a chance to talk to our group as effectively.”

Mattingly, who didn’t instantly reply to The Publish’s request for remark Saturday morning, wrote on Fb that he loved his time on the occasion, saying, “Meals was superb and workers was even higher!” After Jones replied to his submit by thanking him “for ruining my household’s and everybody else’s dinner,” Mattingly provided to pay for her household’s dinner and stated he meant no hurt in his presentation.

“That was not the intent,” he wrote on Fb.

Anna’s Greek Restaurant didn’t instantly reply to The Publish’s electronic mail or voice mail requesting remark Saturday morning. Its Fb web page additionally was inaccessible early Saturday. Nobody answered a telephone name to a quantity listed for Vilson Qehaja, who’s listed in state information because the enterprise proprietor.

The occasion was moved to Anna’s after it was scheduled to be held at Bowling Inexperienced Nation Membership, which had declined to host it “upon being made conscious of the visitor speaker,” reported the Louisville Courier-Journal. It was additionally going to characteristic an look by Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles, a 2023 gubernatorial candidate within the state’s Republican major. However the candidate backed out because of what his workplace described as “the controversial nature of one other speaker at this occasion,” in accordance with Spectrum Information.

The GOP group’s occasion on the Greek restaurant has been met with backlash, together with from the Bowling Inexperienced-Warren County chapter of the NAACP.

“It’s past reprehensible to topic anybody, not to mention kids and prospects of African American descent, to such indecent publicity, graphic and upsetting photos whereas they have been making an attempt to get pleasure from their meal,” Ryan Dearbone, president of the NAACP chapter, said in a statement Thursday. “Such disturbing occurrences should not be tolerated particularly in locations of public lodging. At a minimal, these acts are devoid of humanity and violate probably the most elementary rules of human decency.”

Tuesday night time was shaping as much as be a enjoyable one for Johnson, who had made a reservation for eight individuals at Anna’s to welcome again some associates. Johnson stated she caught a part of a report about how Mattingly can be talking someplace, however thought nothing of it.

“I didn’t catch the placement,” she stated. “I had no thought it was occurring in my city, placed on by individuals locally.”

Johnson and her occasion observed a buffet occasion was being held upstairs for an estimated 80 individuals. They thought it was humorous and peculiar that the occasion was raffling off a chocolate cake, she stated. However after a lady on the occasion made a joke about covid-19 over the sound system blaring all through the restaurant, Johnson puzzled what sort of an occasion was occurring.

It didn’t take lengthy for her and her group to appreciate Mattingly was the visitor of honor and what he was speaking about: March 13, 2020, and the no-knock raid that killed Taylor. Johnson’s occasion, which featured two individuals of shade and a veteran with PTSD, have been rocked by what they have been listening to and seeing.

“We have been simply sick and in shock, and we didn’t know what to do,” Johnson advised The Publish.

Johnson stated she and her occasion discovered Qehaja, the proprietor of Anna’s, and expressed their issues about how their dinner was disrupted by what was alleged to be a personal occasion. Cellphone footage obtained by The Publish exhibits a person, whom Johnson recognized as Qehaja, shrugging his shoulders in response to their issues.

“I don’t know what’s occurring,” the person replies.

Johnson’s group specifies that the occasion featured gunshots from Taylor’s killing, then the person responds, “I’ve nothing to do with that.” At one level within the video, loud bangs from the presentation may be heard within the background.

After one other member of Johnson’s occasion requested whether or not he knew it was Mattingly talking in his restaurant, the person within the video addressed the query with an unrelated query: “You’re being served, proper?”

4 officers concerned in Breonna Taylor’s killing face federal prices

The occasion from the GOP ladies’s group got here 5 months after the Justice Division filed federal civil rights prices in opposition to 4 former Louisville cops in Taylor’s killing. Former detectives Brett Hankison, Joshua Jaynes and Kelly Goodlett and former sergeant Kyle Meany face the primary federal counts stemming from Taylor’s demise, amid mounting anger from civil rights activists and Taylor’s household.

Within the 4 days because the dinner, Johnson stated it has been exhausting for her or any of her associates to sleep after listening to the gunshots that killed Taylor over what was anticipated to be a pleasant night time out.

“The GOP ladies’s group ought to apologize to Breonna Taylor’s household and the individuals who have been current that night time and subjected to that,” Johnson stated. “Why they wished to offer Jonathan Mattingly of all individuals a platform to talk about Breonna Taylor, I don’t know. It’s disgusting.”