Officer in Breonna Taylor Case Fights Back as Police Department Moves To Fire Him
At least one Kentucky police officer connected to the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor is fighting a police move to terminate his employment.
An attorney for Louisville Metro Police detective Joshua Jaynes told The Associated Press on Wednesday that his client hasn’t done anything wrong and shouldn’t be disciplined in connection with a police raid in March that led to Taylor’s death.
“I’m very troubled by the chief’s actions here, and I hope that we can challenge those proposed actions successfully,” attorney Thomas Clay said.
A pretermination hearing for Jaynes, originally set for Thursday, has been rescheduled for Jan. 4, Clay said.
The police department sent pretermination letters to Jaynes and officer Myles Cosgrove, news outlets reported Tuesday.
Jaynes sought the no-knock search warrant that led detectives to Tayor’s apartment and Cosgrove fired the fatal shot during the raid, authorities have said.
Police Chief Yvette Genry levied two charges against Jaynes: That he wasn’t at the right location when the search warrant was executed and that he wasn’t truthful in an affidavit seeking the warrant, Clay said.
He disputes both allegations. Clay said Jaynes was at the location specified in a final police briefing prior to the raid and that he was truthful in the affidavit seeking the warrant.
Jaynes was sued by Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker.
In a motion asking a judge to dismiss him from the lawsuit, Jaynes acknowledged providing “incorrect information” in the warrant but argued that it was an “honest mistake” in an otherwise valid warrant. Jaynes’ motion was denied last month.
In a letter to Jaynes obtained by WDRB-TV, Gentry said there should have been “better controls, supervision and scrutiny” in preparing the warrant.
“Because the operations plan was not completed properly a very dangerous situation was created for all parties involved,” Gentry wrote.
Cosgrove failed to “properly identify a target” when he fired rounds into Taylor’s apartment, killing her, according to a copy of his pretermination letter obtained by The Courier Journal.
Cosgrove, in his testimony to investigators, said the apartment was completely dark and he saw “vivid white flashes” and a “distorted shadowy mass, a figure in front of me.” He fired his handgun 16 times, according to ballistics evidence.
His attorney, Jerrod Beck, and Louisville Metro Police declined to comment on Wednesday.
Officers were serving a narcotics warrant on March 13 when they shot Taylor, 26.
Former officer Brett Hankison was charged by a grand jury with wanton endangerment, a low-level felony, for firing into an adjacent apartment where people were present.
The two officers who shot Taylor were not charged by the grand jury, based on a presentation of the case by the office of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron.
One of those officers was shot by Taylor’s boyfriend during the raid and returned fire. Taylor’s boyfriend said he thought an intruder was breaking into her apartment.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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