The cop responsible for firing the bullet that killed Breonna Taylor in a Kentucky police raid now works at a sheriff’s department an hour away, multiple outlets confirmed.
Former Louisville Metro Police Officer Myles Cosgrove, along with two others, was fired in 2021 after Taylor’s killing in 2020, but he was never convicted despite damning video footage and witness accounts. A fourth officer retired after the shooting.
But Thursday marked the start of Cosgrove’s new gig at the Carroll County Sheriff’s Department, according to local outlet WLKY.
Chief Deputy Rob Miller told the outlet “there will be opinions on both sides of the equation.” But ultimately, Miller said, “We’re going to give him a chance.”
“We think he will help reduce the flow of drugs in our area and reduce property crimes,” Miller, who has previously been accused of using excessive force on the job, told the Louisville Courier Journal. “We felt like he was a good candidate to help us in our county.”
Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, was employed as an emergency room technician and lived with her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker. He and Taylor were in bed on March 13, 2020, when officers went through with a “no-knock” drug search warrant at their apartment ― the wrong apartment. Walker fired at police thinking they were intruding.
Subsequently, police unleashed an onslaught of 32 gunshots, 16 of which came from Cosgrove’s gun.
Taylor was struck by the bullets five times.
One of the officers, Kelly Goodlett, pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge for falsifying the “no-knock” warrant with another officer, meaning that law enforcement should have never been at Taylor and Walker’s residence.
Taylor’s death added momentum to the nation’s ongoing Black Lives Matter protests and anti-police and police reform discourse. Now, a protest over the news that Cosgrove was hired at another station is scheduled to occur on Monday, according to WHAS 11.
The Carroll County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story had pictured the wrong officer in its social and site images.