Police have now named the officers involved in shooting death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency medical technician (EMT) who was shot and killed by Louisville Metro Police on March 13. They are Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove.
Taylor was shot and killed shortly after the officers served a no-knock warrant at her apartment at 12:43 a.m. where she and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were sleeping. Walker also opened fire, police say.
Walker’s lawyer says Walker believed he was shooting at intruders. Prosecutors charged Walker with attempted murder of a police officer after his bullet struck Mattingly’s femoral artery.
Here are the three narcotics detectives involved in the incident, according to an archive of police shootings for the year 2020:
- Mattingly, a 47-year-old sergeant with 19 years on the force
- Hankison, a 44-year-old detective with 17 years on the force
- Cosgrove, a 42-year-old detective with 14 years on the force
The three belong to the department’s Criminal Interdiction Division. Heavy has reached out to LMPD for comment on the case, and this story will be updated if a response is received.
The department record claims:
Officers attempted to make entry into the residence during the execution of a search warrant and were met by gunfire from within the residence. Multiple officers returned fire. One subject was taken into custody and another subject was killed during the incident.
Since 2014, Louisville police have been involved in 50 officer-involved shootings, according to departmental statistics.
Here’s what you need to know:
Jonathan Mattingly
Louisville policeJonathan Mattingly
During the raid, Mattingly was shot in the upper thigh and the bullet struck his femoral artery, according to local TV station WHAS-11. He underwent surgery on his leg and is expected to make a full recovery, according to LMPD Chief Steve Conrad.
Mattingly’s injuries, inflicted by Walker during the raid, are the basis of the attempted murder charges against Kenneth Walker.
Mayor Greg Fisher told Wave News that Walker’s prosecution will go forward and a special prosecutor will be appointed to investigate the Public Integrity Unit‘s investigation, once it is completed:
My office has been in conversation with Commonwealth Attorney Tom Wine’s office. I understand he will be recusing himself from this case, as he has a conflict – he is handling (the) prosecution of the person who is charged in the shooting of Officer Jonathan Mattingly during the incident.
Mattingly’s LinkedIn page lists only his sergeant position.
One court decision shows Mattingly has worked in drug enforcement for years.
Mattingly is mentioned in a 2008 case before an appellate court. Tobias Jones was accused of being a felon in possession of a firearm and made a pretrial motion to suppress key evidence. That court decision says that, in 2006, Detective Jonathan Mattingly of the Louisville Metro Police Department “was patrolling in his unmarked pickup truck in what was regarded as a drug-trafficking neighborhood in Louisville, near Seventh and Kentucky Streets.” He saw Jones get out of a Nissan with other people in it and suspected the car was involved in “flagging,” the court decision says.
The decision describes flagging as being when a person “unfamiliar with a neighborhood but interested in buying drugs drives around the neighborhood until flagged-down by someone waiting on a corner.” It turned out Jones was going to his mother’s house. Mattingly and another officer “hemmed” in Jones’ car, and Jones jumped out. Mattingly patted him down and found a stolen gun, as well as marijuana, according to the court document. Jones argued the officers didn’t have reasonable suspicion for the stop. The court found that Jones’ rights weren’t violated in part because Mattingly “had substantial experience in law enforcement, much of it spent investigating drug-related crimes.”
Brett Hankison
Louisville policeBrett Hankison
Hankison and his K-9, Franklin, received a commendation for giving a demonstration to students in October of 2017. In 2019, he also received a commendation for assisting the FBI with “the seizure of twenty-five pounds of methamphetamine and approximately $105,000 of U.S. currency” and apprehension of four suspects.
However, Hankison has also been named in two lawsuits.
On May 25, 2012, Hankison and roughly 20 other police officers were named in a lawsuit filed by Leon Brackens.
In court filings, Brackens’ lawyer alleged that Brackens was getting a ride from a woman named Rhonda Sullivan who led Indiana and Kentucky police on a car chase; during that chase, Brackens dialed 911 twice and during both calls, said he was scared to death didn’t want to die. However, “for reasons that are not apparent from the record,” LMPD dispatchers said Brackens was the threat and the primary suspect.
At the end of the chase, dashcam video showed Brackens being taken down to the ground by several officers and handcuffed. “Sadly,” the court record reads, “Brackens suffered fractures of his left femur and left humerus during the incident.” Brackens alleged that he was a victim of police brutality and false imprisonment. It is unclear what role Hankison played during the pursuit or arrest of Brackens, but he was eliminated from the lawsuit more than a year before its conclusion.
In October of 2019, Hankison was the subject of another lawsuit brought by Kendrick Wilson, who sought $15,000 from Hankison and alleged that Hankison violated his federal rights in an ongoing vendetta.
In court filings, Wilson’s lawyer said he and Hankison first met in 2016 when Hankison arrested him for a bar fight. The lawsuit alleged that after that, “Mr. Wilson had various interactions with defendant Hankison, including over a relationship with the same woman, however, none led to an arrest.”
Wilson said when he walked by Hankison in June of 2018, Hankison said his K9, Franklin, alerted to a narcotic odor from Wilson’s jeans. According to the plaintiff’s interpretation of the body camera footage, Wilson took money out to show his pockets, put the money back in his pockets and turned to walk away when Hankison grabbed him and other LMPD officers appeared to detain him.
Defendant Hankison then appears to “locate” alleged narcotics on the sidewalk feet away from where the altercation took place, as viewable from his body camera footage. He then jokes with other LMPD officers about “planting dope” when Mr. Wilson expressed shock over the locating of these drugs, and that officers were claiming they were his. Defendant Hankison makes further jokes about the amount of cash Mr. Wilson had, claiming “business is booming today” with a laugh. Also visible on the body camera is an unnamed civilian, who can be heard communicating with Mr. Wilson that he saw an officer drop the drugs on the sidewalk before he retrieved them. The civilian stated he would find Mr. Wilson and send a cellphone video to him which recorded the incident. Defendant Hankison acknowledges that he heard this interaction.
The case from that arrest is still pending.
In the meantime, however, Wilson said Hankison arrested him again, and according to the lawsuit, “Hankison can also be seen on the same video taunting Mr. Wilson’s girlfriend, telling her to ‘put this on social media’ and telling her that he was planting ‘dope’ again.”
Then, in the month he filed his lawsuit, Wilson said LMPD narcotics officers searched his car and the barbershop he owned, which the lawsuit alleges led to the destruction of walls, carpets, vents and doors; only a legally registered handgun, ID and cellphone were found.
In his answer to the complaint, Hankison said the “body camera video, recordings and court records should speak for themselves” and denied all other allegations.
Myles Cosgrove
Myles Cosgrove
The Courier-Journal lists Myles Cosgrove as a police academy graduate on Nov. 19, 2005.
Roughly one year after his graduation, Cosgrove was sued by then-57-year-old Arthur L. Satterly, who ended up in critical condition after Cosgrove shot him.
According to court records, Cosgrove first encountered Satterly in the middle of December when he suspected the driver of being drunk. He saw the car again two days before Christmas and tried to pull Satterly over at a Speedway gas station at about 12:45 a.m. As Cosgrove began approaching the car, he claims that Satterly put the car in reverse and in response, Cosgrove broke the driver’s side window.
Cosgrove alleged that Satterly then tried to run him over, so he fired 11 shots in the driver’s side door, hitting Satterly multiple times. Satterly was then later charged with wanton endangerment, fleeing police, illegally operating a vehicle and illegal possession of drug paraphernalia.
Satterly’s lawyer, David Mejia, told Wave News that the wanton endangerment charge against Satterly was “nonsense.”
Satterly accused Cosgrove of using excessive force and filed a lawsuit. However, U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Simpson granted Cosgrove’s motion for a summary judgment, which effectively dismissed Satterly’s case.
New Evidence Shows a No-Knock Warrant Was Used & Taylor Was Not the Target
FacebookBreonna Taylor.
According to USA Today, Taylor was listed on the warrant, but not as the main target of LMPD’s drug investigation. The search warrant used to enter Taylor’s home listed Jamarcus Glover and Adrian Walker as the main suspects in their investigation; police believed Glover was using Taylor’s home to receive mail and hide drugs and money.
After police said they tracked him going to and from Taylor’s house, they requested a no-knock warrant for the raid on Taylor’s home, which means police are not legally required to identify immediately themselves when they enter the property; Lt. Ted Eidem of LMPD’s Public Integrity Unit, however, said police did identify themselves in a press conference.
One of the attorneys representing Taylor’s family, national civil rights attorney Ben Crump, said the type of warrant and witness testimony from four witnesses is proof that the officers did not announce themselves as they claimed. Neither Taylor nor her boyfriend had a criminal history or drug convictions, and no illegal drugs were ever found in the apartment.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear expressed concern about the incident in a tweet. Former presidential candidate and current California Sen. Kamala Harris has said the Department of Justice should investigate the circumstances surrounding Taylor’s death.
READ NEXT: Louisville EMT Breonna Taylor and Her Boyfriend Weren’t the Main Targets of A Police Investigation