The former Columbus police officer who fatally shot an unarmed Black man last year has been arrested and indicted on a murder charge, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced at a virtual press conference on Wednesday.
“The grand jury found the truth: Andre Hill should not be dead,” Yost said.
Adam Coy, 44, a 19-year-veteran of the Columbus Division of Police was fired days after he shot 47-year-old Andre Hill on Dec. 22 after he and another officer responded to a neighbor’s non-emergency call about someone sitting in a vehicle turning it on and off repeatedly and playing music loudly.
Chief Thomas Quinlan recommended that Coy be terminated after finding that the facts of the case didn’t indicate that the use of deadly force was objectively reasonable.
Coy shot Hill seconds after arriving on the scene as the unarmed man walked out of a garage with a cellphone in his hand, video footage of the encounter shows. Coy did not turn on his body-worn camera until after the shooting but the look-back feature on the device captured the 60 seconds leading up to when the camera was turned on.
In addition to the murder charge, Coy faces an additional three counts from a Franklin County grand jury.
The charges include felonious assault and two counts of dereliction of duty — one for failing to turn on his body camera when he responded to the scene, and another for failing to inform his fellow officer that he felt Hill presented a danger. Officer Amy Detwiler, who was also on the scene, said she didn’t perceive any threat but heard Coy say before firing his weapon that Hill had a gun.
Coy said he believed the key ring in Hill’s hand was a gun.
“(Police) undertake the increasingly difficult and dangerous task of protecting our communities, but every person is responsible for and judged by his or her own actions,” Attorney General Yost said. “Neither guilt nor virtue may be assumed by association.”
After the shooting, Hill was left bleeding on the ground in handcuffs without medical attention for several minutes. His death sparked local outrage, especially as it came on the heels of the slaying of another Columbus Black man, 23-year-old Casey Goodson, by a local sheriff’s deputy on Dec 4.
According to the Hill family’s attorney, Ben Crump, an autopsy determined that Hill might he survived the shooting if first aid had been rendered immediately.
Attorney Michael Wright, who also is representing the family, told the Columbus Dispatch on Wednesday that the grand jury indictment has been secured.
“We’re happy that this has occurred, but this is a first step. We want the officer to be convicted, we want him to be incarcerated,” Wright said. “The family is happy and they’re cautiously optimistic that officer Coy will have to pay the price and be convicted for the killing of Andre Hill.”
