A former Ohio police officer who shot and killed a Black man after mistaking his keys for a gun has been found guilty of murder.
The murder trial for Adam Coy came to a close on Monday after a jury convicted the former cop of murder, reckless homicide, and felonious assault in the death of 47-year-old Andre Hill.
Coy fatally shot Hill within seconds of an unarmed Hill emerging from a garage holding a set of keys in one hand and a cellphone in the other, in Columbus on Dec, 22, 2020.
The ex-cop was called to a home about a suspicious vehicle parked on a street early that morning. He encountered Hill in the car and Hill told Coy that a friend was coming to meet him.
Coy stayed to monitor the situation and saw Hill walk to a home, knock on the door, and enter the garage. Coy’s attorneys maintained that Coy followed him under the suspicion that Hill might have been trying to break in, but it was later revealed that the home Hill entered belonged to a friend and he was staying there as a guest.
Coy commanded Hill to exit the garage and when Hill walked toward him, he saw a glint of steel from Hill’s right hand and assumed he was holding a weapon. Coy yelled, “Gun! Gun!” and then shot Hill four times.
The object Hill was carrying was a mass of metal keys. It was only after the shooting that he learned that Hill had no weapon.
”I thought I was going to die,” Coy testified. “I knew at that point I made a mistake. I was horrified.”
Coy and the other responding officer, Amy Detweiler, called for backup after the shooting, but it took nearly 10 minutes before an officer administered medical aid to Hill as he was on the ground bleeding. He was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
According to records released days after the shooting, Detweiler stated that she perceived no real threat from Hill nor did she see a gun.
Trial proceedings lasted more than a week as jurors sat through five days of opening statements, witness testimony, and closing arguments.
The defense argued that Coy had reason to believe he was in danger, while prosecutors countered that Hill was never a threat.
“That there was no weapon does not matter,” defense attorney Kaitlyn Stephens said during opening statements. “Police officers are allowed to be mistaken.”
“We’re taught to do what the cops tell you to do, and you can survive that encounter,” Franklin County Assistant Prosecutor Anthony Pierson said during closing arguments. “That’s not what happened here.”
Neither Coy nor Detweiler had their body cameras on during the shooting. However, a lookback feature on the bodycam equipment caught the last 60 seconds of the incident without audio.
Coy, a 17-year veteran with the Columbus police force, was fired a week after the shooting. The city agreed to pay Hill’s family a $10 million settlement, the largest ever paid in the city’s history.
Coy’s conviction marks the first time a Columbus police officer has been found guilty of murder for a death that took place in the line of duty, The Columbus Dispatch reports.
“Today was fair,” Shawna Barnett, one of Mr. Hill’s sisters, told WBNS10TV after the verdict came down. “Justice spoke, and we got what we wanted. We got what was fair and right.”
Hill’s other sister, Michelle Hairston, also expressed satisfaction with the jury’s decision.
“The jury saw this right. We’re just happy this day is over,” Hairston said.
Coy’s attorneys said they planned to appeal the conviction.
“It was devastating,” defense attorney Mark Collins said of the verdict. “The grand jury process is broken. People don’t understand the law.”
Coy will be sentenced on Nov. 25.
