The Cop Who Killed Breonna Taylor Is Now a Sheriff’s Deputy

The Louisville cop who fired the shot that killed Breonna Taylor, igniting a wave of national unrest against police brutality and racism, has been rehired as a sheriff’s deputy in a county an hour north of the city. 

Myles Cosgrove, who was fired from the Louisville Metro Police Department after an investigation into Taylor’s 2020 death, was hired by the Carroll County Sheriff’s Department as a deputy, the department told the Louisville Courier-Journal Saturday.  

“We think he will help reduce the flow of drugs in our area and reduce property crimes,” Carroll County chief deputy sheriff Rob Miller said of Cosgrove, in an interview with the Courier-Journal. “We felt like he was a good candidate to help us in our county.”

On March 13, 2020, Cosgrove and two other officers fired shots at Taylor and her boyfriend Kenneth Walker when officers executed a no-knock raid on Walker’s home. Taylor and Walker were in bed at the time, and Walker, who thought someone was breaking in, fired a shot that hit one LMPD officer, at which point LMPD officers fired back dozens of times. 

Cosgrove fired 16 of those shots, including the one that fatally killed Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician, who was standing in the hallway at the time. Taylor was shot six times in total.

Cosgrove was fired in January 2021 for violating departmental “use-of-force” rules and for not turning his body camera on during the raid. While arguing to get his job back in December 2021, Cosgrove told the merit board that “this event is traumatic for everybody.” 

“The department disowned me. It’s horribly tragic,” Cosgrove told the merit board. “But again, my feelings and concerns are almost secondary in this event.”

Cosgrove was never charged with a crime by either Kentucky prosecutors nor the Department of Justice, which did charge four LMPD officers with federal civil rights offenses, unlawful conspiracies, and other crimes in August 2022. 

Attorney General Merrick Garland said last year that the DOJ decided against charging Cosgrove and others involved in the shooting because they “were not involved in the drafting of the warrant and were unaware of the false and misleading statements that it contained.” 

The Department of Justice released an 86-page report in March excoriating the Louisville Metro Police Department’s policing practices, with Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke saying that the department “failed to adequately protect and serve the people of Louisville, breached the public’s trust, and discriminated against Black people through unjustified stops, searches, and arrests.” 

In November, the Kentucky Law Enforcement Council decided against revoking Cosgrove’s certification to be a police officer in Kentucky. Miller pointed to this decision when he explained Carroll County’s choice to hire him. 

Cosgrove filed a lawsuit against the city and the police department last year seeking reinstatement, but in February, a Jefferson County court ruled that the LMPD merit board had “substantial evidence upon which to base their decision” to fire Cosgrove. 

A small group of protesters gathered at the Carroll County Courthouse in Carrollton Monday and chanted, “Cosgrove has got to,” according to local reports.

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