CARROLLTON, Ky. — The former police detective who fatally shot Breonna Taylor throughout a chaotic raid on her condominium in Louisville, Ky., has been employed by a small county sheriff’s workplace within the state, prompting protests from individuals who stay outraged that he was by no means charged in her demise.
Myles Cosgrove, one among two officers who shot Ms. Taylor in March 2020, was employed in latest days by the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office, in response to the county government, David Wilhoite. Carroll County is about an hour’s drive northeast of Louisville.
Mr. Cosgrove, who’s white, was fired by the Louisville Police Department within the aftermath of the nighttime raid, which prompted a wave of protests throughout the nation within the spring and summer season of 2020. An F.B.I. report discovered that he had fired the shot that killed Ms. Taylor, a Black 26-year-old emergency room technician who had hoped to turn out to be a nurse.
About two dozen demonstrators protested the hiring outdoors the Caroll County courthouse on Monday, together with Morgan Zeyak, who stated she feared that the division had employed a “trigger-happy” officer.
“I hope we get him out of his position,” stated Ms. Zeyak, 21, who’s Black and lives in Carrollton, the county seat. “I don’t feel comfortable with him on the police force.”
About 11,000 folks dwell in Carroll County, and 94 p.c of them are white, in response to the Census Bureau. County business on the courthouse was shut down on Monday due to the demonstration, and deputies suggested folks arriving on the constructing to come back again one other day.
The raid on Ms. Taylor’s condominium was carried out when the Louisville police have been on the lookout for proof of drug dealing by a former boyfriend of Ms. Taylor. A detective concerned in acquiring the search warrant for the raid admitted final yr that the police had misled the decide who approved it. In reality, the previous detective stated, the connection between Ms. Taylor’s former boyfriend and her condominium was far more tenuous than the police had indicated.
When law enforcement officials rammed open the condominium door, Ms. Taylor’s new boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired one shot on the doorway, hanging an officer within the leg. Mr. Walker stated later that he believed the officers have been intruders and that he had not heard them announce themselves.
Three officers returned hearth, with two firing photographs that hit Ms. Taylor. Neither Mr. Cosgrove nor the opposite officer whose shot hit Ms. Taylor has been criminally charged. Prosecutors have stated that the officers didn’t know on the time of the raid that the search warrant was based mostly partly on false info.
The Justice Department filed federal costs final yr towards 4 officers concerned within the raid. Mr. Cosgrove was not amongst them.
Three of the officers have been charged with presenting false info to a decide with a purpose to get a warrant to raid the condominium, and a fourth officer, Brett Hankison, was charged with violating the rights of Ms. Taylor’s neighbors by recklessly firing bullets that flew via Ms. Taylor’s condominium and into theirs. Mr. Hankison was the one officer to face state costs within the case; a jury discovered him not responsible of endangering the neighbors.
One of the officers charged in relation to the warrant, Kelly Goodlett, pleaded responsible final summer season and admitted that she had not objected to submitting an utility for a warrant though she knew that the appliance contained false and deceptive info. A trial date has not been set for the case towards the opposite two officers, Joshua Jaynes and Kyle Meany.
Kevin Williams reported from Carrollton, Ky., and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs from New York.
Source: www.nytimes.com