Holly MatkinLouisville, KY – Two Louisville police officers involved in the raid that resulted in the death of Breonna Taylor have received notices they will be fired.
Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) Detective Myles Cosgrove, one of the officers who returned fire during the March 13 incident, and LMPD Detective Joshua Jaynes, who wrote up the search warrant for Taylor’s home, have both been on administrative reassignment since the shooting occurred, The New York Times reported.
Attorneys for both detectives confirmed they have received notices of termination.
Det. Cosgrove, who has served the LMPD for 15 years, was the second officer who entered Taylor’s home that night, The New York Times reported.
When Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, opened fire on them, Det. Cosgrove returned fire.
At least three of the 16 rounds he fired into the home struck Taylor, according to ballistics analysis conducted by the FBI.
Det. Jaynes wrote the search warrant for Taylor’s home, but was not involved in carrying out the actual raid, according to The New York Times.
He has been accused of lying in the warrant affidavit by allegedly claiming he had spoken with someone at the U.S. Postal Service to confirm packages police believed were involved in a suspected illegal drug operation had been delivered to her home, The New York Times reported.
According to LMPD Interim Chief Yvette Gentry, Det. Jaynes actually obtained that information from a fellow officer, not from the U.S. Postal Service.
“Having an independent, third party verify information is powerful and compelling information,” Chief Gentry wrote in the notice of termination letter sent to Det. Jaynes. “The inclusion of this in the affidavit as a direct verification was deceptive.”
Det. Jaynes’ attorney, Thomas Clay, vehemently denied allegations that his client lied in order to obtain the search warrant, The New York Times reported.
“They have basically tried to throw him under the bus and he’s not going to fit under the bus because he did nothing wrong,” Clay told the paper.
Det. Jaynes’ disciplinary hearing will be held on Thursday.
Jarrod Beck, the attorney representing Det. Cosgrove, confirmed his client received a termination letter, but declined to comment further, according to The New York Times.
Protesters and members of Taylor’s family have demanded the officers involved in the raid be criminally charged, The New York Times reported.
A grand jury declined to pursue charges against Det. Cosgrove or Sgt. Johnathan Mattingly, the second LMPD officer who shot Taylor.
Sgt. Mattingly was shot in the leg during the gunfight with Walker.
The state’s investigation into the officer-involved shooting determined that the officers who returned fire at Walker were justified in fearing for their lives, CBS News reported.
Walker was initially arrested and charged with attempted murder for shooting Sgt. Mattingly, CBS News reported.
He has claimed he fired one warning shot and didn’t aim at anyone.
Those charges were later dropped and Walker filed a lawsuit against the LMPD that claimed he was protected from prosecution under Stand Your Ground laws.
Walker’s lawsuit seeks damages for assault, battery, false arrest and imprisonment, malicious prosecution, abuse of process, and negligence stemming from the incident.
Sgt. Mattingly, who has been the most vocal of the LMPD officers involved in the Taylor case, gave an interview to ABC News and said Walker wasn’t firing a warning shot when he was hit.
“He wasn’t shooting at the ground or a warning shot,” the sergeant described what happened and demonstrated the position. “He’s pushed out with two hands looking straight at me. We… I saw his gun. Our postures were the same looking at each other when he fired that shot at me.”
Sgt. Mattingly filed a lawsuit against Walker in late October, accusing the man who shot him of battery, assault, and emotional distress, CBS News reported.
“Walker’s conduct in shooting Mattingly is outrageous, intolerable, and offends all accepted standards of decency and morality,” attorneys cited in one of the legal standards for intentional emotional distress, according to CBS News.
Sgt. Mattingly told ABC News that his family was suffering and had gone into hiding because of threats.
Walker’s lawyer, Steve Romines, called Sgt. Mattingly’s lawsuit a “baseless attempt to further victimize and harass Kenny” and insisted his client couldn’t be prosecuted under Kentucky’s Stand Your Ground law, CBS News reported.
“Kenny Walker is protected by law under KRS 503.085 and is immune from both criminal prosecution and civil liability as he was acting in self defense in his own home,” Romines said in a written statement.
The LMPD also fired Officer Brett Hankison back in June, the Courier Journal reported at the time.
Then-LMPD Interim Chief Robert Schroeder alleged that Officer Hankison “blindly” fired 10 rounds into Taylor’s home during the March 13 raid, in violation of the department’s use of force and obedience to rules and regulations policies, according to a letter he wrote to Officer Hankison.
Officer Hankison fired through windows covered with blinds after Walker opened fire from inside the residence.
“I find your conduct a shock to the conscience,” Chief Schroeder continued. “I am alarmed and stunned you used deadly force in this fashion.”
The chief said that the officer’s actions “seriously impedes the Department’s goal of providing the citizens of our city with the most professional law enforcement agency possible,” according to the Courier Journal.
“I cannot tolerate this type of conduct by any member of the Louisville Metro Police Department,” Chief Schroeder declared. “Your conduct demands your termination.”
The fatal officer-involved shooting occurred in the 300-block of Springfield Drive at approximately 1 a.m. on March 13, when LMPD Criminal Interdiction Division Sgt. Mattingly, Det. Cosgrove, and Officer Hankison arrived at the residence to execute a search warrant pertaining to a narcotics investigation, LMPD Public Integrity Unit Spokesperson Ted Eidem said during a press conference at the time, according to WDRB.
The plan was to serve the no-knock search warrant at the same time other members of the Criminal Interdiction Division were serving an arrest warrant for Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover, at his home on Elliott Avenue, 10 miles away, the Courier Journal reported.
LMPD suspected Glover had been selling drugs out of his residence on Elliott Avenue but using Taylor’s address to receive mail, store drugs, or stash money he made selling drugs, the Courier-Journal reported.
Det. Jaynes said in an affidavit summarizing the investigation for the warrants that officers had seen Glover go into Taylor apartment in January and leave with a “suspected USPS package in his right hand.”
The affidavit said Glover went from Taylor’s apartment to a “known drug house” on Muhammad Ali Boulevard, the Courier-Journal reported.
Det. Jaynes said he was able to verify through the U.S. Postal Service that Glover had in fact been receiving packages at Taylor’s address.
“Affiant knows through training and experience that it is not uncommon for drug traffickers to receive mail packages at different locations to avoid detection from law enforcement,” he wrote in the affidavit, according to the Courier-Journal.
Sam Aguiar, an attorney for Taylor’s family, said Taylor had dated Glover two years earlier and maintained a “passive friendship” with him.
But officers reported seeing Taylor’s vehicle parked in front of Glover’s home on Elliott Avenue multiple times in 2020, and said that as of February, Glover was listing Taylor’s apartment as his “current home address,” the Courier-Journal reported.
The Criminal Interdiction Division officers executed the warrant on Taylor’s residence in plainclothes with no cameras.
Chief Conrad said some members of the Criminal Interdiction Division do not wear bodycams.
The officers said that they knocked on Taylor’s door repeatedly and announced their presence before forcing their way inside, WDRB reported.
They were “immediately met by gunfire,” Eidem said.
Sgt. Mattingly was shot in the upper thigh during the attack, lacerating his femoral artery, WHAS reported.
The officers immediately returned fire as they made their way to safety, according to WDRB.
The gunman, Walker, ultimately surrendered to police.
When the LMPD’s SWAT team searched the residence, they located 26-year-old Taylor unresponsive inside, WDRB reported.
Taylor had been fatally shot during the exchange of gunfire.
Sgt. Mattingly was rushed to the hospital and taken into surgery, WDRB reported.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is still reviewing the case for potential civil rights violations or any other federal offenses.
The City of Louisville agreed in September to pay Taylor’s family $12 million in order to settle a wrongful death lawsuit, The New York Times reported.
Sandy Malone
