Ex-cop who shot Breonna Taylor points gun at suspect in new job

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CARROLLTON, Ky. (AP) — A former Louisville police officer fired for his role in the shooting death of Breonna Taylor collided with a suspect’s truck and pointed his gun at the man during an arrest in a rural Kentucky town, where he now works as a sheriff’s deputy.

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Carroll County Deputy Myles Cosgrove rammed the suspect’s truck Monday before pointing a gun at the man, witnesses told a Louisville newspaper. These reports contradicted the local sheriff, who said the collision was accidental and that his actions were justified because he was approached by at least five angry people after the accident.

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Cosgrove was one of two officers whose bullets struck Taylor, a Black emergency medical technician, during a botched raid in 2020. An FBI analysis found that Cosgrove likely fired the fatal shot and that he lost his job as a Louisville officer for violating use-of-force policies in her death.

Cosgrove responded Monday to a report of a flatbed truck stolen from another county and taken to a trailer park, Carroll County Sheriff Ryan Gosser said Thursday. Gosser said the owner of the trailer saw it at the suspect’s truck, followed the truck to the subdivision and reported it to police.

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Gosser said Cosgrove responded and his sheriff’s patrol car “accidentally” collided with the suspect’s truck as he tried to flee the subdivision, an account that some witnesses at the scene have disputed.

“It was a complete accident,” Gosser said in an interview Thursday. He said Cosgrove’s behavior after the collision, including drawing and pointing his gun at people, was appropriate.

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Cosgrove was fired from the Louisville Police Department in 2021 for violating use-of-force policies and began working as a sheriff’s deputy earlier this year. His hiring was controversial because of his role in Taylor’s killing and sparked a small protest outside the county courthouse in April.

After the confrontation with the suspect on Monday, Cosgrove drew his gun and pointed it at the suspect, who is white, and others who approached him “in an aggressive manner,” according to Gosser and a state police report. Another responding officer said he encountered a “crowd of individuals screaming and causing a disturbance.” The allegedly stolen trailer was later found nearby by police. Gosser said the suspect threw it away before the encounter with Cosgrove.

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A witness to Monday’s accident said he believed Cosgrove caused the collision.

“He hit him pretty hard,” Jackie McCormack told The Courier Journal. “He just rammed him.”

Gosser said the suspect accelerated to leave the subdivision. Cosgrove’s patrol car also crashed into a parked car after hitting the truck.

Ultimately, three people were arrested Monday, including the driver of the truck, who was charged with endangering a police officer, criminal mischief and fleeing police. Two other women were charged with disorderly conduct.

During the Taylor raid, Cosgrove and another officer, Jonathan Mattingly, fired shots in Taylor’s hallway after her boyfriend fired a single shot that hit Mattingly in the leg. Taylor’s boyfriend said he thought a burglar had broken in when police broke down the door with a battering ram. The raid sparked nationwide protests against police violence over the summer.

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Cosgrove was fired from the Louisville Police Department for violating use-of-force policies by firing 16 times without identifying a target during the Taylor raid. He and Mattingly were not indicted on any charges by a state grand jury in 2020, and a two-year FBI investigation also cleared Cosgrove and Mattingly of any criminal wrongdoing.

When Cosgrove was hired in April, Gosser cited his character as well as the fact that he had not been criminally charged in the Taylor case.

“He is polite and courteous to the public and gets along with his colleagues; and he is a problem solver who demonstrates professionalism and excellent judgment,” Gosser said in a statement to media.

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