(Reuters) – The Louisville police officer who fired the shot that killed Breonna Taylor, a Black emergency medical technician, was told on Tuesday that the department was moving to fire him, U.S. media reported.
Police shot and killed Taylor during a botched raid of her apartment in Louisville, Kentucky, early on March 13.
Taylor’s boyfriend, who was with her when police burst into the home, fired once at what he said he believed were intruders. Three police officers responded with 32 shots, six of which struck Taylor, killing her.
Detective Myles Cosgrove, one of the officers who shot Taylor, and Detective Joshua Jaynes, who prepared the search warrant for the raid, said in a statement quoted by the New York Times https://nyti.ms/3rChqVx that each had received notices of termination.
The Louisville Metro Police Department did not comment when contacted by Reuters.
Taylor’s death came back to light over the summer as demonstrations against racism and police brutality spread across the U.S. after the death in May of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed when a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
