Officer in Breonna Taylor case who fired fatal shot has fundraiser for his retirement

A detective who Kentucky's attorney general said fired the shot that killed Breonna Taylor is seeking to purchase the rest of his service time so he can retire from the Louisville Metro Police Department, according to an online fundraiser launched by his family.

The campaign on GiveSendGo.com is seeking $75,000 to help Officer Myles Cosgrove purchase the rest of his service time "so that he can retire and continue to focus on the safety of his family." It says the family has been put "continually at-risk over the past few months."

It had raised a little more than $7,200 as of Tuesday evening.

Cosgrove could not be reached for comment Tuesday. The founder of GiveSendGo, Jacob Wells, confirmed that the campaign was created by Cosgrove's immediate family and said proceeds will go to them.

The campaign was first reported by the Courier-Journal newspaper of Louisville.

Cosgrove and Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly are on administrative leave while separate internal and FBI investigations are conducted into the March 13 raid at Taylor's apartment. Mattingly was wounded in the shooting.

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said a grand jury agreed that Cosgrove and Mattingly fired in self-defense after Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who said he mistook police for intruders, fired at them.

A grand juror in the case, who filed a court motion Monday seeking the release of the grand jury's transcripts and permission from a judge to speak publicly, has disputed that account. Kevin Glogower, one of the attorneys for the juror, who is not named in the motion, said Tuesday that it is unclear whether the grand jury was given an option to charge Cosgrove or Mattingly in Taylor's death.

The grand jury last week indicted a third officer, Brett Hankison, on three counts of wanton endangerment. Hankison was fired in June for his conduct during the raid. He is accused of firing bullets into another apartment with three people inside. No one in that unit was injured. None of the three officers were directly charged in Taylor's death. Hankison pleaded not guilty Monday and is free on $15,000 bond.

Taylor, 26, an emergency medical technician, was shot six times, Cameron said. She died in the hallway of her apartment.

The "fundraising story" for Cosgrove says the result of the raid "was tragic for all involved."

"Any situation that results in the loss of human life is and should be considered a monumental travesty," it says. "As time has passed, as outrage has been made known, and as protests only continue to grow, it is our ongoing stance that creating a conversation which is both safe and rational is the only way to find a solution.

"We must create an atmosphere of progress for everyone," it continues. "However, amidst this conversation, safety has proven difficult to come by for Myles and his family and we are, at this point, emotionally concerned for all parties involved."

The campaign takes aim at the news media, saying Taylor's case "has been forged into a tool for an agenda that has no regard for the lives that are being destroyed."

The story also says: "While it's imperative to listen to each and every one of our city's voices at this cultural moment, we would like to highlight an important note, a simple exercise in understanding: Most people simply don't understand what it's like to be a police officer in America today. Most people don't know what it's like, as a career, to put your life on the line on the daily basis to simply serve and protect your community. Most people don't know what it's like to have a weapon fired at you."

And it says: "Even fewer know what it's like, after all of that, to have the entire world turn on you with pure vitriol for simply performing your job exactly as you were trained to do by your superiors."

Cosgrove's family said they ask that people "take a moment of empathy to place yourself in that position, think about what it would be like for yourself" and consider what they are going through.

The police department said that neither Cosgrove nor Mattingly has filed retirement paperwork.

The Courier-Journal reported that a police department spokeswoman said in August that the officers were being provided security outside their homes following threats. A police spokesman, Sgt. Lamont Washington, said Thursday: "We do not confirm nor deny security details."