Opening statements began Thursday in the murder trial of a former Ohio police officer who fatally shot an unarmed Black man nearly four years ago.
Adam Coy faces charges of murder, reckless homicide, and felonious assault in the shooting death of 47-year-old Andre Hill that took place on Dec. 22, 2020, in Columbus, Ohio.
The 48-year-old former cop and another officer responded to a non-emergency call made around 1:30 that morning about someone sitting in a vehicle, playing music, and switching the car’s engine on and off.
When Coy and his partner arrived at the scene, Coy shot Hill just 10 seconds after Hill emerged from an open garage with only a cellphone in one hand and a set of keys in the other.
According to NBC4i, Coy’s defense attorney, Kaitlyn Stephens, stressed in her opening statements that whether the cops found a weapon at the scene is irrelevant because police officers are “allowed to be mistaken.”
She asserted that Coy saw a glint of steel in Hill’s hands, which he believed was a revolver but was actually a mass of metal keys. Coy fired out of fear that he was going to be shot. Stephens emphasized that officers are forced to make split-second decisions, and Coy was not reckless but acted in the ways he was trained.
Stephens said that when Coy arrived at the scene of the police call, he spoke to a “wide-eyed and jittery” Hill in his car. After that initial interaction, Coy assumed someone would be coming outside to meet Hill, so he returned to his police vehicle to monitor the situation.
Coy’s attorneys said that Coy then witnessed Hill exit his car, walk to someone’s home, and pound on the door. When no one answered, Hill walked back to his car and searched for something before returning to the home again. Coy asked Hill what was happening, but Hill ignored him. Then, he repeatedly looked back at Coy, the defense claims. Coy’s attorneys said the situation prompted Coy to approach Hill again because he believed a burglary was about to take place.
Prosecutors argued that a very different version of events happened.
Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Renee Amlin said that the day of the police call, Hill was parked on the street waiting to meet with a friend. He turned the car on and off to try to keep warm in cold weather that December morning. This caught the attention of a neighbor who made the 911 call.
The prosecution stated that when Coy arrived, he talked to Hill. Hill told him he was waiting for someone and showed him a text on his phone proving that a person would be coming to see him shortly. Coy returned to his cruiser, and the second responding officer, Amy Detweiler, arrived a short time later.
Amlin said that after Hill entered the garage of a friend’s home, both officers determined they needed to approach him. It was later determined that Hill was staying at that home as a guest.
Coy ordered Hill to exit the garage. Hill began walking in Coy’s direction with his cellphone in hand as if to “show officers something on his phone,” Amlin stated. That’s when Hill was shot. Only Hill’s cellphone and keys were recovered at the scene, but no weapon.
Amlin said that the prosecution plans to prove Coy acted knowingly and recklessly in causing Hill’s death and will call on an expert to testify about police practices to show that Coy did not follow proper procedures.
Neither officer turned on their body cameras prior to the shooting. Their dash cameras also weren’t activated since they responded to a non-emergency call. However, a lookback feature on Coy’s body camera captured the last 60 seconds of the video, which showed the shooting, but there was no audio.
During an internal affairs investigation, Detweiler told police that she didn’t see a gun on Hill’s person and that Hill wasn’t acting in a threatening manner when he was told to leave the garage. Still, Coy yelled, “There’s a gun in his other hand! There’s a gun in his other hand!” just before firing.
Coy shot Hill four times. Backup was called, but it took nearly 10 minutes before an officer gave Hill any medical assistance. He was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dad.
Coy, who was a 17-year-veteran on the Columbus Division of Police, was fired a week after the shooting.
His trial was initially set for March 2022, but due to his battle with cancer, it had been delayed three times. He has been considered healthy enough to stand trial now.
