Two more officers have been officially fired by the Louisville Metro Police Department, for their actions in the law enforcement raid that resulted in the killing of Breonna Taylor. According to USA Today, Detectives Myles Cosgrove and Joshua Jaynes have been terminated as a result of the roles they played in the death of Taylor, who was shot in her apartment in March, while officers were searching for her ex-boyfriend. The terminations of Cosgrove and Jaynes comes after a third detective, former officer Brett Hankison, was terminated in June for “blindly” firing 10 rounds into Taylor’s apartment. However, an FBI investigation determined that it was a bullet fired by Cosgrove that ultimately killed the 26-year-old EMT.
In December, it was reported that Cosgrove and Jaynes had been served pre-termination letters, with Jaynes’ attorney, Thomas Clay, saying that they planned to fight the termination. We intend to show up to the pre-termination hearing on Dec. 31 and we’re going to contest this action, although I’m not optimistic about Interim Chief [Yvette] Gentry changing her decision,” Clay said in a statement. “If she doesn’t, we’re going to pursue every legal remedy to overturn this decision.”
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When the officers raided Taylor’s apartment, they were attempting to arrest her ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover, on narcotics charges. However, Glover no longer lived at the residence. Taylor had been living their with her new boyfriend. Detective Jaynes was the one who submitted for the warrant on Taylor’s apartment, and in it he stated that he received confirmation from the postmaster that Glover had been getting packages delivered there, that Taylor was signing for.
It turned out, though, that this was not accurate. Jaynes later confessed that the postmaster had never confirmed this information. In court papers, Jaynes referred to this as an “honest mistake.”
After the public began to protest Taylor’s death, the case faced new scrutiny, and initially, only Hankison was fired. In a statement in June, Louisville Metro Police Department Chief Rob Schroeder said, “Unfortunately, due to a provision in state law that I very much would like to see changed, both the Chief and I are precluded from talking about what brought us to this moment, or even the timing of this decision.” It was later revealed that Hankison was fired for violating “Standard Operating Procedure” by firing his weapon. Hankison’s termination letter stated that his “actions displayed an extreme indifference to the value of human life” when he fired into Taylor’s apartment.
