Louisville Metro Police Department Terminates Two Police Officers Involved in Breonna Taylor’s Deadly Shooting

It was recently reported that the Louisville Metro Police Department had officially informed two of the police officers involved in the Breonna Taylor shooting that they will be fired. According to NPR, those two Louisville police officers have now been terminated.

The officers, Detective Joshua Jaynes and Detective Myles Cosgrove, received termination letters signed by interim Police Chief Yvette Gentry. Jaynes was the police officer who secured the warrant for the botched March 13 raid on Taylor’s place of residence, and Cosgrove, who, according to federal and Louisville investigators, was the officer who fired the fatal shot at 26-year-old Taylor, were dismissed from their positions Tuesday.

In Jaynes’ termination notice, he was accused of running afoul of department protocols due to the preparation of the search warrant.

“The evidence, in this case, revealed a sustained untruthfulness violation based on information included in an affidavit completed by you and submitted to a judge,” the letter stated. “It is my decision to terminate your employment based on that evidence.”

For Cosgrove, the officer who fired 16 shots into Taylor’s apartment, hitting her two times, the Louisville Metro Police Department stated that he violated department procedures by using deadly force and failing to operate his department-sanctioned body camera.

In his notice, the department states, “The shots you fired went in three different directions, indicating you did not verify a threat or have target acquisition. In other words, the evidence shows that you fired wildly at unidentified subjects or targets located within the apartment.”

Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were asleep the night of March 13, 2020, when Louisville Metro Police barged into her home with a no-knock warrant in relation to a drug investigation. Walker, who is a registered gun owner, fired a shot toward their bedroom door.

The police responded, firing a bevy of shots toward the couple and hitting Taylor five times. Ballistics matched the fatal shot to Cosgrove.

Taylor’s death and other police shootings—most notably the death of George Floyd—sparked a summer of national and worldwide protests that led to several cities defunding police department budgets and to reforms including the release of police disciplinary records and bans on chokeholds.