Myles Cosgrove, the former Louisville police officer who shot and killed Breonna Taylor in 2020, is in trouble again for doing something really shitty. Cosgrove, who is now a sheriff’s deputy in Carroll Country, Kentucky, rammed someone’s truck with his police cruiser and then pointed a gun at its owner and several bystanders, according to The Courier Journal.
Witnesses say Cosgrove drove at a high rate of speed into the Happy Hallow Private Resort Park trailer park without his emergency lights on. He then struck William Joshua Short’s pickup truck with enough force that the vehicle was sent “flying” into a building, breaking off two cinder blocks, according to those who were there. His cruiser then hit another vehicle and damaged it.
Carroll Country Sheriff Ryan Gosser disputed the claims in an email to The Courier Journal. Shocking, I know. He reportedly said “evidence shows” that Cosgrove was not going at a high rate of speed in the trailer park and he actually had his blue lights flashing. He then added that Short was driving around the Happy Hallow building while speeding, and they only crashed once Short turned in front of Cosgrove.
However, he did not dispute that Cosgrove pulled his gun on Short and the other people around, but he says it was for a good reason! He says, “several people came in Cosgrove’s direction shouting threats and menacing Cosgrove.” Aww, poor fella was scared! He just wanted to do property damage and endanger the lives of others without retribution. Poor fella. He also said that Cosgrove has “been a good deputy” and he’s “represented this office professionally.” I’d hate to see the cop who represents it unprofessionally.
Three people were ultimately arrested, including Short, according to ABC News. He was charged with endangerment of a police officer, criminal mischief and fleeing police. Two other women in the truck were charged with disorderly conduct. It should be noted that witnesses say he made no attempt to get away, and they say Cosgrove was “the aggressor” who “straight rammed [Short].”
A woman who was a passenger in Short’s truck said he could have easily been killed by Cosgrove, according to The Courier Journal. She says she was “terrified” when the officer pointed his gun at her and others.
This all started after a truck driver said he saw a trailer he previously reported stolen being towed by a silver or blue pickup truck. He reported the sighting to the Carroll County Sheriff’s office. At the same time, the woman who was riding in the truck with Short and his sister, called 911 to report a man was following them waving a handgun out the window, and that he had fired at them, according to The Journal.
The truck driver contests that he was waving a cellphone, not a gun, and followed them to the trailer park where they all lived. The two women in the truck with Short say he was about to park his truck so he could talk to police when Cosgrove rammed him. Alternatively, the guy who first called the police on Short says Cosgrove was blocking an exit from the trailer park when short rammed him.
Here’s a little refresher on why Cosgrove was fired from his last job, from ABC News:
During the Taylor raid, Cosgrove and another officer, Jonathan Mattingly, fired shots into Taylor’s hallway after her boyfriend shot fired a single shot that hit Mattingly in the leg. Taylor’s boyfriend said he thought an intruder was breaking in when the police knocked down the door with a battering ram. The raid helped set off nationwide police brutality protests that summer.
Cosgrove was fired by Louisville police for violating use of force policies for shooting 16 times during the Taylor raid without identifying a target. He and Mattingly were not indicted on any charges by a state grand jury in 2020, and a two-year investigation by the FBI also cleared Cosgrove and Mattingly of any criminal wrongdoing.
At the time of Cosgrove’s hiring in April, Gosser cited the fact that he was not charged criminally in the Taylor case, along with his character.