LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Former Louisville police chief Yvette Gentry testified Wednesday she “had no faith I could put a gun and badge back in” former Detective Myles Cosgrove’s hands “and send him back into the community” after his statements about shooting Breonna Taylor.
Gentry told the Louisville Police Merit Board that Cosgrove never identified a target and fired 16 shots in different directions after he and former Sgt. Johnathan Mattingly burst into Taylor’s home during a March 13, 2020, raid.
And even months after the shooting, Cosgrove believed he only fired four times and still could not articulate a reason for the number of shots fired or justify that he saw a threat where deadly force was necessary, she said.
“You fire 16 rounds, and they go in three different directions, and you say you don’t hear and you’re not seeing” a specific threat, Gentry said on day two of Cosgrove’s termination appeal. She fired him in January. “I didn't have the confidence" to keep him.
The FBI determined Cosgrove fired the shot that killed Taylor. Mattingly later resigned from the department.
Attorney Scott Miller, who represents Cosgrove, argued Cosgrove and Mattingly were in a “fatal funnel,” a small hallway where Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, immediately fired a shot that hit Mattingly, knocking him to the ground.
“You agree he and Mattingly both were in a precarious situation?” Miller asked Gentry.
Gentry responded that by the time Mattingly went down, Cosgrove had already fired 16 shots and never was able to articulate what he was shooting at, saying that he saw a “shadowy figure” and bright lights.
"You have to see your target ... see what you are shooting at," she said.
Conversely, Gentry said Mattingly saw a person holding a gun and fire a shot. Mattingly returned fire, shooting six times, toward the target he identified.
“All of his shots went toward that threat he identified and he moved himself out of the way,” she said.
Miller repeatedly noted that Cosgrove said he saw a “muzzle flash,” which Gentry eventually acknowledged, and he noted that 16 shots can be fired in four seconds.
“This whole thing is over in five seconds,” Miller said.
But in her determination to fire Cosgrove, Gentry said she continued to try to find out what the detective felt was the imminent threat requiring so many shots, given he never described seeing anyone with a weapon.
“If you are not hearing and you are not seeing, you do not shoot,” Gentry testified.
While acknowledging that it was a stressful situation, Gentry said Cosgrove was a 15-year veteran and “reacted so poorly under the stress." Officers are required to fire a few rounds and reassess the situation, she said.
“I didn’t have any confidence in putting him back out there as a police officer,” Gentry testified.
Regardless of what he saw, Miller has said the subsequent investigation proved Cosgrove was correct in his assessment of the threat, as Walker fired a shot hitting Mattingly in the leg.
Cosgrove’s perception of the situation was “reasonable” and “confirmed,” Miller said Tuesday. "He acted in accordance with the policy in a high stress rapidly evolving situation."
On Sept. 23, 2020, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced that only one officer, Brett Hankison, would be indicted in the raid.
Cameron told reporters that his office and the Jefferson County grand jury both agreed that Mattingly and Cosgrove were "justified" in returning a shot fired first by Walker. Walker, who was standing in the apartment's hallway, has said he believed police were intruders breaking into the apartment before 1 a.m. March 13.
The Louisville Police Merit Board will hear additional testimony in December.
Before the merit hearing began Tuesday, Cosgrove's attorney and the city stipulated that he failed to wear and activate his body camera, which would have resulted in a one-day suspension.
Police shot and killed Taylor, 26, during an undercover raid on her apartment on Springfield Drive as part of a series of raids elsewhere that targeted narcotics trafficking. No drugs or money were found in her home. Nothing illegal was found in her home.
The city settled a wrongful death lawsuit with her family for $12 million.
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