The detective suspected of firing the fatal shot that killed Breonna Taylor and another detective who used false information to acquire the drug warrant were recently fired from the Louisville Metro Police Department. A third officer was fired last year for blindly firing into Taylor’s apartment and a neighboring apartment.
On March 13, 2020, Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officers Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove wearing plainclothes with police vests executed a no-knock drug warrant at Taylor’s residence in Kentucky. According to Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, he thought intruders were breaking into the apartment and shot Mattingly in the leg with his licensed firearm.
The officers reportedly fired more than 30 rounds into Taylor’s apartment and neighboring apartments. They fatally shot Taylor at least five times even though she had been unarmed.
No drugs were found inside her residence.
Last year, Officer Hankison was fired from the department for displaying “an extreme indifference to the value of human life” and because he “wantonly and blindly fired ten (10) rounds” into Taylor’s apartment, according to his termination letter. The police chief added, “Some of the rounds you fired actually travelled into the apartment next to Ms. Taylor’s endangering the three lives in that apartment.”
On Tuesday, interim LMPD Chief Yvette Gentry confirmed that Det. Cosgrove was terminated for violating the department’s use-of-force policies for firing 16 shots without identifying a target and for not activating his body camera. In Cosgrove’s dismissal letter, Gentry wrote, “The shots you fired were in three different directions, indicating you did not verify a threat or have target acquisition.”
Gentry also confirmed that Det. Joshua Jaynes, who was not present at the shooting, has been fired for falsely stating that a drug-trafficking suspect was receiving mail at Taylor’s apartment in an affidavit seeking the search warrant. According to Jaynes, he received that bit of false information from another officer but failed to acknowledge it in the affidavit.
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