Friday, June 5 marks Breonna Taylor’s birthday. She would have turned 27 years old today, and people around the world are honoring the late EMT with celebrations of her life, and demands that the police officers who killed her are brought to justice. Several months after three officers barged into her house with a “no-knock” warrant and shot Taylor eight times in her own bed, where are the officers in question? What has developed with Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, and detectives Myles Cosgrove and Brett Hankison since that night?
None of the officers have been charged with any crime related to Taylor’s death. They are still on paid administrative leave.
According to an archive for police shootings for the year 2020, Mattingly is a 47-year-old sergeant with 19 years on the force. Cosgrove and Hankison are both detectives, 42 and 44 years old, respectively. Cosgrove has 14 years on the force, and Hankison has 17.
Here’s what you need to know:
Myles Cosgrove, Jonathan Mattingly, & Brett Hankison Have Been on Paid Administrative Leave Since May 19
Louisville policeOfficers Mattingly (top left), Hankison (right) and Cosgrove (bottom left)
Though the FBI has reopened Taylor’s case, no arrests have been made for Mattingly, Hankison, or Cosgrove yet. They have been on paid administrative leave for over two weeks now.
As for Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, he was initially charged with attempted murder, for shooting Mattingly in the thigh when the officers barged into Taylor’s apartment. Walker claimed he had no idea who the officers were, since they were in plainclothes, and was acting in self defense. Neither Walker nor Taylor had a criminal record.
The charges against Walker have since been dropped.
His lawyer, Rob Eggert, did confirm that Walker plans to “resume his life” now. He has given very few public statements about his experience or opinion on what transpired.
Calls for the Arrests of Hankison, Mattingly, & Cosgrove Are Gaining Momentum
Ayo @louisvillemayor @GovAndyBeshear When the fuck are y’all going to arrest and charge Breonna Taylor’s murderers ?!?
Why are Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankinson & Myles Cosgrove still roaming freely & still being payed while y’all try to protect the blood on y’all’s hands?
Now, calls for the arrests of Mattingly, Hankison, and Cosgrove are growing. A Change.org petition demanding these arrests has received over 3 million signatures and counting; one freelance writer, Cate Young, has organized a mass letter-writing campaign, asking people to send birthday cards for Taylor to the officials in charge of the case, demanding these officers are arrested and charged with her murder.
To Distractify, Young said,
“I had just been feeling kind of frustrated with how quickly Breonna’s name had fallen out of the news cycle. I think with the protests that have been happening in George Floyd’s name, it kind of got really easy and convenient to forget her… But having been paying attention to the news for the last seven or eight years, I’ve seen this kind of thing happen over and over again, where we enter these periods of increased attention to police brutality against black people, black women are among that number, and those black women’s names just stop coming up in stories.”