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A Louisville, Ky., police officer who fired the fatal shot that killed Breonna Taylor has a new job in law enforcement in the city’s northeast county.
The Carroll County Sheriff’s Office on Saturday confirmed the hiring of Myles Cosgrove, who was fired from the Louisville Metro Police Department in January 2021 for violating use-of-force procedures and failing to use a body camera during the attack on Taylor’s apartment, according to the report. media reports.
About a dozen people showed up in downtown Carrollton Monday morning to protest the lease, holding signs and chanting “Cosgrove must go.”
“I think he should go to jail,” said Haley Wilson, a 24-year-old resident of Carrollton, a small Kentucky town near the Ohio River. He said it was “absolutely ridiculous” that Cosgrove was now overseeing the city.
Cosgrove was acquitted by a jury, the deputy chief said
Investigators say Cosgrove fired 16 rounds into Taylor’s apartment after the door was kicked in during a narcotics raid on March 13, 2020. Thinking an intruder was inside, Taylor’s boyfriend shot the officer with a handgun. Officer Jonathan Mattingly was struck in the leg, and the officer returned fire, killing Taylor in his hallway.
An FBI investigation determined that Cosgrove and Mattingly assaulted Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman, and that Cosgrove may have fired the shots. No officers were indicted by a 2020 state grand jury in Taylor’s death, and a two-year investigation by the FBI also cleared Cosgrove and Mattingly of any charges.
An FBI investigation found that another superior officer created a false drug warrant that contained false information about Taylor.
U.S. Attorney Merrick Garland said in August that the officers who went to Taylor’s apartment with a warrant “were not involved in drafting the affidavit and did not know it was false.”
Robert Miller, deputy chief in Carroll County, pointed out that Cosgrove was cleared by a state grand jury when he spoke about hiring in a small Kentucky sheriff’s department.
In November, the Kentucky Board of Law Enforcement voted not to revoke Cosgrove’s state peace officer certification. This means they can apply for other law enforcement jobs in the state.
There is no database of fired officers
Brett Hankison, the officer who fired shots but did not hit anyone during the attack, was found not guilty by a jury of a charge of endangerment.
But he is still awaiting trial on federal civil rights charges for his actions during the raid, as are two other officers involved in obtaining the warrant. A third officer pleaded guilty to conspiracy in the crafting of the warrant.
There is no national database of officers who have resigned or been fired for wrongdoing, meaning that in many cases they can apply for jobs at other agencies and police departments.
Pop Chat37:25How Breonna Taylor’s Death Became a Meme
Breonna Taylor was shot and killed by police. The Internet rallied to keep his name in the news – by turning it into a meme. But does online activism translate to IRL justice? And how does the meme remind him? Plus: The Social Dilemma bothers a lot of people about social media. But does that mean anyone will change their behavior? And of course, the panel put the recommendations in the group chat – healthy and saucy.
In some cases, agencies that hire officers fired elsewhere may not know the officer’s history because they failed to conduct proper background checks, said Ben Grunwald, a Duke University law school professor and co-author of a 2020 study on itinerant officers. , which described a police officer who “was fired by one department, sometimes for serious misconduct, who then sought employment in another agency.”
However, in Cosgrove’s case, his history is highly publicized.
In some cases, it’s possible that hiring agencies see an officer’s history of prior firings as a benefit, rather than a risk, Grunwald said.
“Maybe that’s what he wanted,” he said. “Maybe he’s looking for a cowboy cop who’s been in trouble in the past, but he thinks he’s got a shake.”
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