It’s been nearly seven months since Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, was shot and killed by police during a fumbled late-night drug raid in her apartment in Louisville, Kentucky. Since then, protests for justice have spanned the nation. Detective Myles Cosgrove, the police officer who, according to an FBI ballistics laboratory analysis and Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, fatally shot Taylor, is currently on administrative reassignment with pay. There is now a crowdfunding effort on GiveSendGo, a Christian site, however, seeking to raise $75,000 to buy out his retirement, as first reported by the Louisville Courier Journal. CNN reports that Jarred Beck, an attorney for Cosgrove, confirmed to the news outlet that members of Cosgrove’s family set up the page.
The fundraiser description reads in part: "Myles' reputation has been completely dismantled and the psychological trauma is something that he will have to cope with for the rest of his life.” The fundraiser also blames both local and national media, saying Taylor’s case has been forged “into a tool for an agenda that has no regard for the lives that are being destroyed.” Later in the statement, the media is accused of leaving out “important details with regards to this specific case,” and in a sense having “lied by omission.” The statement also references “blatant lies” on social media.
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As a quick review, only one of the three officers involved in the shooting—former Detective Brett Hankison—is facing charges in state court for three counts of wanton endangerment. Notably, that charge is actually for shooting into the apartment next to Taylor’s, which was occupied at the time. So, to be super clear, this charge is not actually related to the killing of Taylor; the Kentucky grand jury did not bring homicide charges against Cosgrove, Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, or Hankison. Hankison has already been fired. Cameron, however, announced last week that Cosgrove (as well as Mattingly) acted in self-defense because Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker (who has said he thought the police were intruders when they entered), fired at them. The officers had executed a “no-knock” warrant.
As of now, neither Cosgrove nor Mattingly have been indicted over that incident, though both are awaiting internal police and FBI investigations. Louisville reached a $12 million wrongful death settlement with Taylor’s family, but the fight for justice is still ongoing. Taylor’s family, for example, has called for manslaughter charges at a minimum.
The fundraiser argues that most people don’t know what it’s like to be a police officer, to “put your life on the line,” and to “have a weapon fired at you.” The statement reads: “Even fewer know what it’s like, after all of that, to have the entire world turn on you with pure vitriol for simply performing your job exactly as you were trained to do by your superiors.”
As reported by the Louisville Courier back in August, the police department said they were providing security outside of the officers’ homes.