Story

Cop Who Killed Breonna Taylor Sets Up Fundraiser For His Retirement

A GiveSendGo page has been set up by the family of police officer Myles Cosgrove, who fired the lethal shot that ended Breonna Taylor’s life in March. On the page, Cosgrove’s family explains that due to public outrage over Taylor’s death and the lack of charges brought against the officers involved, Cosgrove will never be able to safely work again and thus will need financial support from the public to be able to leave his job and focus on caring for his family.

“It has recently become clear that it will be impossible for Myles to safely return to his position serving the community with the Louisville Metro Police Department. We hope to raise enough funds to help him purchase the remainder of his service time, or ‘air-time,’ so that he can retire from the LMPD and continue to focus on the safety of his family, a family that has been put continually at-risk over the past few months,” reads the fundraiser story.

While some are outraged at the mere idea of Cosgrove asking the public to fund his retirement, others have already begun emptying their pockets. As of the writing of this article, the fundraiser has raised over $36,000, nearly halfway to its $75,000 goal.

breonna taylor cop

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Last week, a grand jury charged only one of the officers involved, Brett Hankison, on three wanton endangerment charges for the bullets he misfired into Taylor’s neighbor’s apartment. No homicide charges were laid for any of the three officers involved in the shooting. Hankison was fired, however Mattingly and Cosgrove remain on paid administrative reassignment while they await the verdicts of an internal police investigation and an FBI investigation. Cosgrove’s wife revealed in a post last week that the incident has changed their lives for the worse, stating that they’ve had to remain in hiding for four months, traumatized, and combating ceaseless threats from strangers every day.

If this fundraiser was to reach its goal, it would allow for Cosgrove to leave his job without having to worry about his family’s financial well-being.

[via]

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Story

DJ Akademiks questions if Lil Durk will get bond as the racketeering case goes on

Lil Durk’s legal battle is about to take another big step, and DJ Akademiks is already sharing his expectations for what could go down when the rapper returns to court in November.

Durk is in custody, awaiting his next VICAR case in which authorities say he was running a criminal enterprise. His next trial was set for October 5, but recent developments have called into question when those proceedings will occur.

Durk’s murder for hire trial recently resulted in a not guilty verdict in November. Regardless of that outcome, he remains in custody because the separate racketeering related charges remain unresolved. Durk’s attorneys have asked for the new hearing and have been ordered to appear by U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services, which also must submit a fresh bail report.

Against that backdrop, legal commentator Bradford Cohen had previously suggested Durk could eventually get bond. That view ties in with Durk’s not-guilty verdict in the earlier case, and the argument that the outcome could make it harder to sustain the remaining allegations.

DJ Akademiks sees things a bit differently. In a recent livestream, Akademiks predicted that Durk would not get a bond at the Nov. hearing. He believes the charges will stick and cites the seriousness of the allegations in the VICAR case as his reasoning. He also doesn’t appear to expect the rapper to be released from jail anytime soon as the case moves forward.

Akademiks’ prediction concerns the bond hearing, not Durk’s chances at trial. Durk’s legal situation remains unresolved for now. His recent acquittal has altered the circumstances of his arrest, but the separate racketeering case still looms over the rapper as both sides prepare for the next phase.

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Celebrity

DJ Akademiks Resurrects 2015 Drake vs. Meek Mill Beef With Alleged Nicki Minaj Backstory

DJ Akademiks is digging up hip-hop history buried for 10 years as he offers his supposed explanation for how the Drake/Meek Mill feud came to a head in 2015. The back-and-forth between Akademiks and Meek Mill has resurfaced the conversation. Akademiks returned to the long-running Drake-Meek beef on his stream last night, saying a comment by Nicki Minaj had something to do with what happened between the two rappers.

According to Akademiks, Meek and Minaj were shopping at a designer fashion store when they got to the register. He says that when Meek told her he didn’t have the cash to pay for Minaj, she allegedly told him he would never be Drake. Akademiks also claims Minaj left the store on her own, and then Meek went on X, and what happened next started the infamous feud with Drake.

The account remains an allegation, not a confirmed explanation. The information provided has not been independently verified, and ultimately only those involved, including Minaj and Meek Mill, could confirm the story’s authenticity.

The beef between Drake and Meek Mill started in 2015 and has become a staple in hip-hop conversation. Meek struggled after the fallout, while the beef became a defining moment in Drake’s career. However, the two eventually made up and collaborated on “Going Bad,” signaling a return to a more cooperative relationship despite the rivalry’s tension.

Now that Akademiks and Meek are throwing shots again, the events of 2015 are back in the conversation. By reflecting on the feud, Akademiks has added another possible piece of context to a story that has been a hot topic in hip-hop for years.

Whether his version of events is what actually happened, however, remains unresolved. Currently, the designer-store story isn’t factual, but it is Akademiks’ version of the events surrounding the beef.

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