Detective who fired bullet that killed Breonna Taylor sues to get his LMPD job back
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The former Louisville Metro Police detective who fatally shot Breonna Taylor in March 2020 is not giving up his effort to rejoin the department.
Myles Cosgrove filed suit against the department and the Louisville Metro Police Merit Board in Jefferson Circuit Court on Wednesday, four months after the board upheld his January 2021 firing.
The board's 5-2 vote to uphold Cosgrove's termination was "arbitrary and unlawful due to actions in excess of its authority or in violation of due process," attorney Scott Miller says in the complaint.
Claims made in a lawsuit represent only one side of a case. LMPD does not typically comment on pending legislation.
Miller also argues the board made multiple mistakes in handling Cosgrove's case.
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Sgt. Justin Witt, an LMPD officer on the board at the time of the vote, failed "to disclose a conflict of interest that would justify recusal and improperly influencing board deliberations and decision-making," Miller wrote, without naming the alleged conflict. (The suit misidentifies Witt as 'Jason Witt.')
Miller also alleges the board failed to take into consideration the finding of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron's office, which concluded Cosgrove was legally justified in returning fire after Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired the first shot.
The standards for threat identification and isolation also were applied to Cosgrove in a way that was different from Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, who also shot his gun during the raid, Miller argued.
Cosgrove was fired by former interim Chief Yvette Gentry for failing to "properly identify a target" when he shot 16 times into Taylor's apartment on March 13, 2020.
An earlier Courier Journal analysis found that the board has not overturned any of the terminations it has heard since 2015.
During the board hearing, Cosgrove testified he regrets the death of Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman. But, he said, he believes he acted appropriately and did what most officers would have done in his situation.
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Cosgrove, Mattingly and ex-Detective Brett Hankison fired a combined 32 rounds into Taylor's apartment. Of those, six rounds fired by Cosgrove and Mattingly struck Taylor. The FBI concluded Cosgrove fired the fatal shot.
A Jefferson County jury found Hankison not guilty last month on three counts of felony wanton endangerment for his role in the raid. His charges were not filed over Taylor's death, but for shots that entered a neighboring apartment with three people inside.
Hankison was fired in 2020 after a former interim chief called the rounds he shot through the covered door and window "a shock to the conscience." He appealed his firing to the merit board, but the appeal hearing was set aside until criminal proceedings concluded.
Cosgrove is the second officer fired in the Taylor case to lose his appeal to the merit board. Joshua Jaynes, the detective fired for lying on the search warrant for Taylor's apartment, is also appealing the decision with a circuit court lawsuit.
Reach Tessa Duvall at [email protected] and 502-582-4059. Twitter: @TessaDuvall.