A Columbus, Ohio, police officer was relieved of duty after it was discovered that he did not turn on his body-worn camera until after fatally shooting an unarmed Black man early Tuesday morning.
Columbus Police Chief Thomas Quinlan relieved 44-year-old officer Adam Coy of duty, stripped him of his police powers, and ordered him to turn in his gun and badge on Tuesday.
The man, identified as Andre Maurice Hill, 47, was shot after officers responded to a neighbor’s non-emergency call about a man sitting in an SUV playing loud music and turning the vehicle on and off repeatedly.
When police arrived at 1:37 a.m., Hill was standing in the garage, with a cellphone in his left hand. Within seconds of Hill approaching the officers, still holding his cellphone, Coy raised his weapon and fired. Hill died less than an hour later at a hospital.
Both officers at the scene activated their body-worn cameras immediately after shooting the man, and the “look back” feature on the the camera captured the shooting.
The feature captured and saved the prior 60 seconds from before the camera was activated. The footage from after the shooting shows “a delay in rendering of first-aid to the man,” the public safety department said in a statement.
The look back feature did not capture the audio of the shooting.
Because the officers were responding to a non-emergency call, the dash cameras were not activated.
The investigation has shown so far that Hill was visiting someone at the time of the shooting. No weapon was recovered at the scene.
“Let me be clear, if you’re not going to turn on your body-worn camera, you cannot serve and protect the people of Columbus,” Mayor Andrew Ginther said during a news conference on Tuesday.
Ginther said the city had invested more than $5 million toward getting cameras for officers and that it was not acceptable that the cameras were not turned on.
Columbus released footage of the shooting on Wednesday. The 30-second clip published by 10TV shows an officer approaching Hill as he stands in the garage of a home with his cellphone in his hand. The video ends before any shots are fired.
According to 10TV, after Hill was shot, Coy gave him several commands, shouting profanities at the dying victim who did not move.
“Put your f***ing hands out to the side. Hands out to the side now,” Coy shouts. “Roll to your stomach now.”
Coy approached him and rolled him over. Additional footage released by the department revealed that five and a half minutes passed after Hill’s shooting before an officer attempted to administer first aid.
Ginther shared his frustration as well at the news conference, “From what we can see, none of the officers initially at the scene provide medical assistance to Mr. Hill. No compression on the wounds to stop the bleeding. No attempts at CPR. Not even a hand on the shoulder and an encouraging word that medic were in route.”
Coy, a 19-year veteran with the Columbus division of police, is still receiving pay pending the investigation of the shooting. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation said it was called on to investigate the shooting. Coy was involved in an excessive force complaint in 2012 that resulted in the city paying a $45,000 payout. He was suspended for 160 hours and did not lose his job.
“I am deeply saddened, frustrated, angry, demanding answers of what happened in our community earlier this morning. And I am committed to transparency and accountability in our division of police,” Ginther said.
Tuesday’s shooting is the second deadly shooting this month involving a Columbus-area law enforcement official and a Black man. Casey Goodson Jr., 23, was fatally shot by Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Meade in early December. The deputy was not equipped with a body-worn camera. Goodson’s family has disputed authorities’ narrative of events, and his death sparked protests and unrest in the community.
