Firing of Louisville detective who fatally shot Breonna Taylor is upheld after a board review
By Amir Vera and Evan Simko-Bednarski, CNN
A review board upheld the termination of the former police detective who fired the shot that killed Breonna Taylor last year in Louisville, Kentucky.
The Louisville Metro Police Merit Board backed the decision to fire Myles Cosgrove by a 5-2 vote on Wednesday, a decision that arrived after several days of hearings.
The Louisville Metro Police Department terminated Cosgrove in January for use of deadly force for firing 16 rounds into Taylor’s home and failing to activate his body camera, according to a copy of his termination letter.
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said Cosgrove fired the shot that killed Taylor — which Cameron said was justified because Taylor’s boyfriend fired at officers first.
Kenneth Walker II, Taylor’s boyfriend, said he thought the officers were intruders and fired one shot when they broke down the door, prompting officers to return fire, riddling the apartment with bullets, according to his attorney.
An LMPD board notice of hearing states part of Cosgrove’s hearings took place in November. The second half of his hearing took place this week.
It was discovered in September 2020 that Cosgrove was raising money on the “Christian crowdfunding site” GiveSendGo to fund his retirement.
“Myles’ reputation has been completely dismantled and the psychological trauma is something that he will have to cope with for the rest of his life,” the fundraiser description reads.
Detective Joshua Jaynes, who wrote the search warrant for the raid, was fired at the same time as Cosgrove.
The Louisville police union at the time called the firings “unjustified.”
“There is certainly no evidence in this case that policies and procedures of the LMPD were violated to the extent that warranted termination,” the River City Fraternal Order of Police said in a statement. “Interim Chief (Yvette) Gentry not only made the wrong decision, but also sent an ominous message to every sworn officer of the Louisville Metro Police Department.”
Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician, was shot and killed by Louisville police officers in her apartment during a flawed forced-entry raid in the early hours of March 13, 2020. Her death, along with that of other Black people at the hands of law enforcement, sparked a summer of protests calling for police reform.
No officer who took part in the raid was charged for Taylor’s killing.
Only one of the three officers — Brett Hankison — was charged in connection with the shooting. The LMPD fired Hankison in June 2020, and in September 2020, a grand jury charged Hankison with three counts of felony wanton endangerment for blindly firing 10 shots into Taylor’s home. He pleaded not guilty. Hankison is expected to stand trial in 2022.
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CNN’s Rebekah Riess, Eliott C. McLaughlin, Mark Morales and Ganesh Setty contributed to this report.
