Adam Coy former CPD cop indicted with shooting death of Andre Hill Columbus unarmed black man who he left to bleed to death.
An Ohio police officer fired for fatally shooting an un-armed black man in December was on Wednesday indicted with murder.
Adam Coy, 44, fatally shot Andre Maurice Hill, a 47-year-old Black man, in the early morning hours of Dec. 22 while Hill was standing in a friend’s Columbus garage and holding a cell phone.
Bodycam video (see below) showed Coy shooting Hill and then failing to help him as he bled to death on the ground. The footage of the gunshots was only available through an automatic recording feature, as Coy didn’t turn the camera on until after he shot Hill.
Hill was a guest in the home and was not trespassing or committing any crime when he was killed.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s office investigated the case and then turned its findings over to a grand jury, which returned four charges, WKBN reported.
Did he mistake cellphone for gun? Was officer’s life in immediate danger? Was a crime being committed?
Coy is formally charged with murder in the commission of a felony, felonious assault and two counts of dereliction of duty. The former officer was arrested and scheduled to appear in court Thursday.
‘Though nothing will bring back Andre’s life and relieve his family’s grief, this is an important step toward justice,’ Hill family attorney Ben Crump said in a statement Wednesday.
On the night Coy killed Hill, he and another officer were responding to a nonemergency call about a car parked in front of a house that had started, turned off and then restarted.
Coy noticed Hill in a garage near the car. Bodycam footage shows Hill facing Coy and holding a cell phone in his left hand before Coy fatally shoots him.
Loss of faith
The Columbus Division of Police fired Coy on Dec. 28. Then-police chief Thomas Quinlan recommended Coy’s firing, who was demoted last week by Mayor Andrew Ginther, the Columbus Dispatch reported.
The 30-year veteran Columbus police veteran was demoted, ‘following the community losing faith in the chief and in the division’s ability to change on its own,’ Ginther said in a statement.
‘The grand jury found the truth,’ attorney general Yost said in Wednesday night’s press conference, according to the Dispatch. ‘Andre Hill should not be dead.’
