LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Myles Cosgrove, the former Louisville detective who was fired in 2021 for violating LMPD's policy on the use of deadly force, will not get his job back, a circuit court judge ruled Monday.


What You Need To Know

  • A Jefferson County judge ruled Monday that Myles Cosgrove won't get his job back at LMPD

  • Judge Melissa Logan Bellows upheld the LMPD Merit Board's decision to terminate Cosgrove after he sued in April 2022

  • Cosgrove fired the fatal shot during the botched no-knock raid on Breonna Taylor's apartment

Cosgrove was one of three cops involved in the deadly no-knock drug raid on Breonna Taylor's apartment. Cosgrove fired the shot that killed the 26-year-old Black woman after returning fire from her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker.

Judge Melissa Logan Bellows upheld the decision of LMPD and its Police Merit Board to terminate Cosgrove in early 2021 in a ruling nearly one year after Cosgrove appealed his firing.

The merit board upheld Cosgrove's firing in December 2021 by a 5-2 vote, and his attempts to appeal that were denied.

In the 11-page lawsuit, Cosgrove's attorneys decried the board's decision as "arbitrary" and "unlawful" several times, accusing the board of violating his due process.

Taylor's death after the botched no-knock raid partly sparked the widespread racial justice protests seen in more than 2,000 U.S. cities over the summer of 2020, alongside the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Former LMPD officer Kelly Goodlett admitted in federal court that she and another officer falsified information in the warrant used to justify the raid. That confirmed to many, including U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, that Taylor never should have been visited by armed officers on March 13, 2020.