Protesters gathered at a rural county in Kentucky on Monday after one of the officers who fatally shot Breonna Taylor was hired as a deputy. According to The Associated Press, Myles Cosgrove returned to law enforcement after the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office hired him.
In January 2021, the Louisville Metro Police Department fired Cosgrove for his involvement in the fatal and botched March 2020 home raid. His termination came after the department determined he went against its use-of-force procedures and did not use a body camera during the home raid.
Investigators also said the bullet that killed Taylor was likely fired by Cosgrove, adding that he fired 16 shots into the Black woman’s apartment during the botched raid. “I think he should be in jail,” a protester said. She also referred to Cosgrove’s appointment as “absolutely ridiculous.”
Taylor was with her boyfriend Kenneth Walker when she was shot by three Louisville police officers who broke into her apartment in the name of executing a no-knock search warrant in a narcotics investigation on March 13, 2020.
The officers fired into her apartment after one of them was struck by a bullet that Walker initially fired. Walker had claimed he opened fire because he thought an intruder was trying to enter the home. However, a grand jury did not charge Cosgrove and another former officer, Jonathan Mattingly, for their involvement in the raid.
Responding to Cosgrove’s appointment, Carroll County chief deputy Robert Miller said a state grand jury had cleared him. In November, his state peace officer certification was also not revoked by the Kentucky Law Enforcement Council, meaning he could still be employed as a law enforcement officer in the state, per The Associated Press.
Following the raid, police explained that they had been investigating Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover, a convicted felon. However, the deceased’s family sued the city, claiming “officers obtained a ‘no-knock’ search warrant with false information and burst into Taylor’s home after midnight without announcing themselves and blindly fired into it, spraying bullets into her house and neighboring apartments with a total disregard for the value of human life.”
In August 2022, a federal grand jury brought multiple charges against four former Louisville Metro Police Department officers for their involvement in the raid. The charges in question were linked to the search warrant that was executed at the deceased Black woman’s apartment. Authorities alleged one of the fired police officers – Kyle Meany – was aware the affidavit that was used to secure the warrant for the raid was falsified.
