LOUISVILLE, 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.
Carroll County Deputy Myles Cosgrove rammed the suspect’s truck before pointing a gun at the man on Monday, witnesses told a Louisville newspaper. Those accounts contradicted the local sheriff, who said the collision was accidental and his actions were justified because he was approached by at least five angry people after the crash.
Cosgrove was one of two officers whose bullets struck Taylor, a Black emergency medical technician, during a botched 2020 raid. An FBI analysis determined Cosgrove likely fired the fatal shot and he lost his job as a Louisville officer for violating use of force policies in her death.
Cosgrove was responding Monday to a report of a flatbed trailer stolen from another county and brought to a mobile home subdivision, Carroll County Sheriff Ryan Gosser said Thursday. Gosser said the owner of the trailer had spotted it attached to the suspect’s truck, followed the truck to the subdivision and reported it to police.
Gosser said Cosgrove responded and his sheriff’s cruiser “accidentally” collided with the suspect’s truck as the suspect was attempting to flee the subdivision, an account that some witnesses at the scene disputed.
“That was completely an accident,” Gosser said in an interview Thursday. He said Cosgrove’s actions after the collision, including drawing and pointing his gun at people, was appropriate.
Cosgrove was fired by Louisville police in 2021 for violating use of force policies and started working as a sheriff’s deputy earlier this year. His hire was controversial due to his role in Taylor’s killing and attracted a small protest in front of the county courthouse in April.
After the collision with the suspect Monday, Cosgrove drew his gun and pointed it toward the suspect, who is white, and others who were moving toward him “in an aggressive manner,” according to Gosser and a state police report. Another responding officer said he arrived to a “crowd of individuals screaming and causing a disturbance.” The allegedly stolen trailer was later found by police nearby. Gosser said it had been ditched by the suspect before the encounter with Cosgrove.
A witness to the crash Monday said he believes Cosgrove initiated the collision.
“He hit him pretty hard,” Jackie McCormack told The Courier Journal. “He just straight rammed him.”
Gosser said the suspect had accelerated to leave the subdivision. Cosgrove’s cruiser also struck a parked car after hitting the truck.
Three people were ultimately arrested Monday, including the truck’s driver, who was charged with endangerment of 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 into Taylor’s hallway after her boyfriend shot fired a single shot that hit Mattingly in the leg. Taylor’s boyfriend said he thought an intruder was breaking in when the police knocked down the door with a battering ram. The raid helped set off nationwide police brutality protests that summer.
Cosgrove was fired by Louisville police for violating use of force policies for shooting 16 times during the Taylor raid without identifying a target. He and Mattingly were not indicted on any charges by a state grand jury in 2020, and a two-year investigation by the FBI also cleared Cosgrove and Mattingly of any criminal wrongdoing.
At the time of Cosgrove’s hiring in April, Gosser cited the fact that he was not charged criminally in the Taylor case, along with his character.
“He is polite and courteous with the public and gets along with his peers; and he is a problem solver who exhibits professionalism and excellent judgment,” Gosser said in a statement to media outlets.
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