LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A former high-ranking Louisville Metro Police Department official told the Police Merit Board Wednesday that she believes Detective Myles Cosgrove’s termination after shooting Breonna Taylor was motivated by politics.
The seven-member board is expected to decide Wednesday if Cosgrove — fired in January by former interim Chief Yvette Gentry for failing to “properly identify a target” when he shot 16 times into Taylor’s apartment on March 13, 2020 — can return to the department or if his termination will be upheld.
“In your time with the department, can you remember anybody being fired for political reasons?” Sgt. Justin Witt, an officer representative on the Merit Board, asked retired Deputy Chief LaVita Chavous, a witness for Cosgrove.
“Not that I can remember,” Chavous replied.
“Do you think that this one was because of political reasons?” Witt asked.
“Yes, I do,” Chavous said without hesitation.
Chavous testified she’d heard Mayor Greg Fischer say last summer that he wished he could fire the officers connected to the Taylor case.
Chavous said she took this to mean Cosgrove as well as Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, Detective Brett Hankison and Detective Joshua Jaynes, though Fischer did not name them specifically.
Ultimately, Cosgrove, Jaynes and Hankison were fired; the first two by Gentry, the latter by former interim Chief Robert Schroeder. Chavous said she did not believe Cosgrove should have been fired.
