A police officer fatally shot a Black man early Tuesday in Columbus, Ohio, three weeks after a county sheriff’s deputy killed a Black man in the state capital, which ignited a round of protests against police brutality.
“Our community is exhausted,” Mayor Andrew J. Ginther said during a news conference.
Mr. Ginther said the fact that the officer did not activate his body camera until after Tuesday’s shooting “disturbs me greatly,” particularly with the city still reeling from the Dec. 4 death of Casey Goodson Jr., which was not captured on video.
On Wednesday, the Columbus Department of Public Safety identified the victim as Andre Maurice Hill, 47. The officer, Adam Coy, a 19-year veteran, was relieved of duty and forced to turn in his badge and gun.
Though Officer Coy did not have his body camera turned on during the shooting, a violation of department policy, the department’s body cameras are equipped with a feature that starts recording 60 seconds before they are turned on.
When the officer did turn on his camera, the playback feature captured the shooting. The footage did not capture audio until after the shooting, so any verbal exchange before the gunfire was not recorded.
The video, released on Wednesday, showed two police officers responding to a call from someone concerned about an S.U.V. parked in a residential area. On a recording of the call, which was also made public, a man told a police dispatcher that the vehicle had been there for about 30 minutes, and that the car had been running for much of that time.
Officer Coy’s body camera footage shows that he approached a garage with another officer, shining flashlights inside. As they did, Mr. Hill, who appeared to be holding a cellphone in one hand, walked slowly toward them.
Within seconds, Oficer Coy pulled his gun and opened fire. Mr. Hill fell to the ground.
Then the audio recording started. Officer Coy, still pointing his gun, ordered Mr. Hill to put his hands to his side and roll onto his stomach. “Don’t move, dude,” Officer Coy said as he patted down a groaning Mr. Hill. “Roll over, dude.”
It is unclear exactly how long it took police officers to provide first aid to Mr. Hill, but officers can first be seen on the video attending to him about six minutes after he was shot. Mr. Hill died at a hospital shortly after.
No weapon was recovered at the scene.
“This is a tragedy on many levels,” Chief Thomas Quinlan of the Columbus Division of Police said in a statement. “We promise that we will provide as much transparency as possible on our part, both with investigators and the public.”
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is leading the inquiry in the case (Wright “Columbus” 1-2).
In the parking lot of Brentnell Community Recreation Center where Andre' Hill played basketball, learned to play chess and simply hung out with friends, more than 100 people gathered decades later to share stories and demand police reforms.
Corey McDonald went to Hocking Technical College with Hill and remembered Hill on Saturday evening as passionate and skilled in the culinary arts.
"If he tasted it. If he smelled it. He could make it," said McDonald, of Hill, who was shot by Columbus Police Officer Adam Coy three days before Christmas during a non-emergency service call while visiting a friend at a home in the 100 block of Oberlin Drive on the Northwest Side.
"He was smart. He was a good guy," McDonald said. "He was a good friend."
"You get him in a dark room with a fork and some salt and pepper and a match, he's gonna make something good," McDonald added.
Hill, 47, known to friends and family as Big Daddy, also was passionate about people, active in Black Lives Matter causes and was wearing a BLM shirt early Tuesday morning when he was confronted by Coy and a female officer, who has not been publicly named, in the entrance of the open garage of the home.
Shawna Barnett recalled her older brother as a talker, who would entertain, but also educate.
"He would talk to anyone. He spoke to everyone, welcomed everyone and treated everyone the same."
"He was always one to give a helping hand with no excuses, no questions. You could always count on Andre."
"He would never hurt anyone. So for them to pull out (a gun) and kill my brother for no reason is unacceptable," Barnett said, pausing to compose herself. "He wasn't even given an opportunity to even finish a sentence before the cop shot him."
She assailed the police for denying Hill aid for more than five minutes while they attended to Coy, who was coughing, and offering him water.
"We are here because, even though it's Christmas, unfortunately police brutality and implicit bias don't even take a break for Christmas," said Benjamin Crump, who, along with two local attorneys, is representing Hill's family, whom he said "were expecting Big Daddy to bust through the door on Christmas morning, like he had always done."
…
Crump said that Hill's family had heard extended video in which Coy asks a colleague: "I need to figure out what the (expletive) am I going to say," to which the other officer replies: "I got you."
That statement is not shown in the video released by police after the shooting. Columbus Public Safety spokesman Glenn McEntyre said there is no other police version of the exchange (Narciso 1).
Newly released documents from Columbus police on Tuesday show officer Adam Coy, who was fired after he fatally shot Andre Hill, an unarmed Black man, had at least a nine-year history of reacting inappropriately in stressful situations.
The internal affairs and complaint records for Coy were released as part of a request under the Ohio Public Records Act. Coy's personnel file showed 90 citizen complaints filed against Coy in his 19 years with the division.
…
According to the documents released Tuesday, supervisors within the Columbus Division of Police were aware of Coy's errors in judgment as early as 2011.
A man filed a complaint against Coy following an arrest in February of that year. The records state the man was stopped after police received a call about a firearm being shown from a vehicle and then fired. The man also did not comply with police orders when he was stopped, the records state.
After an internal investigation, Coy received documented constructive counseling for swearing at the man "in an offensive manner" and not using the microphone for his cruiser video camera system. Columbus police did not have body cameras at the time.
Coy said the battery for the microphone had died and was charging in his cruiser at the time of the stop.
Coy and another officer were also given documented constructive counseling for driving irresponsibly and outside of policy. Coy was recorded as going 83 mph in a 35 mph zone while responding to the call.
The man had also alleged he was struck by an officer, whom he did not identify. That allegation was not sustained because there was no evidence to prove or disprove it.
An investigator with the police division's internal affairs wrote in a report that there was "the sound of banging" captured on video, but no video captured the incident itself. Coy said the noise was him placing the man against the cruiser after the man had pushed himself off of it. Other officers who responded said they did not see any force.
In August 2012, Coy was also given documented constructive counseling after responding to a domestic dispute, according to internal affairs documents. Coy called the woman a "hood rat" and smoked a cigarette while waiting for a supervisor, the records state. Smoking while on duty is against division policy.
Two months later, Coy was again under internal investigation after stopping a suspected impaired driver in the Ohio State University campus area around 3:30 a.m. Oct. 16, 2012.
A person who lived in the area filed a complaint with police about what they believed to be excessive force on Coy's part during the traffic stop. Dash camera video showed Coy striking the suspected drunk driver's head four times against the hood of a police cruiser.
The investigation resulted in Coy being internally charged and having a hearing before then-Chief Kim Jacobs. During the hearing, Jacobs told Coy he had "too many complaints not to record everything" and that the division had to be concerned about "somebody from the outside looking into this type of behavior."
"You can't act out of fear and you can't act out of anger," Jacobs said. "We need you to act without having the tension there."
Coy said he had struck the suspect's head against the cruiser when the suspect "tensed up" while Coy was handcuffing him.
"I saw minor actions and movements ... in an inflated manner due to my lack of focus," Coy said.
After interviewing Coy, reviewing the dash camera video and interviewing witnesses, an internal affairs investigator wrote in her report that the driver was "at no time ... actively resisting."
"There is nothing to indicate that (level of) response was required," the investigator wrote. "The additional head strikes to the hood of the cruiser were not necessary and were excessive for the situation."
During the hearing, Coy said he had proactively sought out a stress management class, had reached out to an employee assistance program offered by the city and signed up for a use-of-force course offered by the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy.
Coy again showed signs of lack of control and not using de-escalation techniques in 2018, according to records.
Coy had been helping with traffic in the area of the Ohio State Fairgrounds in August 2018 when he was flagged down about a large fight in the area. When Coy responded, according to the documents provided, he used profanity to keep members of the crowd out of the road and used mace against one person who was not complying with his orders.
The use of mace was determined to be within division policy.
Coy was also disciplined for using the term "hoodlum" when talking to one person in the crowd. His use of the term was captured on Coy's body camera.
Coy was given documented constructive counseling for "gratuitous" use of profanity at the scene that "only served to antagonize," a commander wrote (Bruner 1-3).
A Columbus police officer who was fired after fatally shooting a Black man in December was arrested and charged with felony murder on Wednesday [February 2021], Attorney General Dave Yost of Ohio announced.
The officer, Adam Coy, a 19-year veteran who is white, was also charged with felonious assault and two counts of dereliction of duty.
Mr. Coy shot Andre Hill four times after responding to a call about a suspicious vehicle. When he and another officer arrived at the scene, Mr. Coy found Mr. Hill in a garage and opened fire within seconds.
Mr. Yost said his office acted as a special prosecutor in the case, reviewing evidence, interviewing witnesses and presenting charges to a grand jury, which indicted Mr. Coy on Wednesday.
“The vast virtue of law enforcement is diminished by the very few bad actors among its ranks, and only by holding a bad actor accountable can that virtue be sustained,” Mr. Yost said at a news conference. “Here’s what I mean in plain English: same rules for everybody.”
…
Mr. Coy’s lawyer, Mark Collins, said that he had expected an indictment because of “the low threshold of probable cause,” but that the specific charges were surprising. He said the evidence would show that Mr. Coy was justified in his use of force and that the former officer believed that Mr. Hill was holding a silver revolver in one hand.
“Police officers have to make these split-second decisions, and they can be mistaken,” said Mr. Collins, who said Mr. Hill was actually holding a keychain. “If they are mistaken, as long as there’s an honest belief and that mistake is reasonable, the action is justified” (Wright “Former” 1-2).
In January, [the mayor] Mr. Ginther demoted the former Columbus police chief, Thomas Quinlan, who he said had lost the public’s trust after failing to “successfully implement the reform and change I expect and that the community demands,” according to The Columbus Dispatch.
The City Council also unanimously passed Andre’s Law, named after Mr. Hill, which mandates the use of body cameras by city police during any action by law enforcement, The Columbus Dispatch reported. The law also requires officers to give aid and call for medics if they use any force that causes injuries.
…
At the news conference, Benjamin Crump, a lawyer for the family, thanked the city’s leadership for settling the case so quickly and for establishing the new precedent “that we will value all life equally” (Wright “Columbus” 3).
The city of Columbus, Ohio, has agreed to pay $10 million to the family of Andre Hill, a 47-year-old Black man who was shot and killed by a Columbus police officer in December.
It is the largest such settlement in the city's history, and the largest pretrial settlement in a police use-of-force case in state history, lawyers said.
"It's one step toward something. It doesn't help or doesn't take the scar off of our hearts that we still have from my dad not being here," said Hill's daughter Karissa Hill at a press conference after the settlement was announced. "But it's something, and it's a start."
…
… What do we want the example to be for our children?" said civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who has represented Hill's family, along with many others of those killed by police. "When you see wrong, then your obligation is to do right."
The department fired Coy on December 28 for failing to turn on his body camera and for not providing medical aid.
He has since been charged with murder and felonious assault. He was arrested in February [2021] and was released on a $1 million bond. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. Coy has pleaded not guilty to those charges.
Two federal investigations, one by the FBI and one by the U.S. attorney for central Ohio, are also underway.
"No amount of money will ever bring Andre Hill back to his family, but we believe this is an important and necessary step in the right direction," said Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein in a statement.
In addition to the $10 million payment, the settlement requires the city to rename a municipal gym after Hill by the end of 2021.
Hill's daughter Karissa held her own daughter as she spoke to reporters later.
"My daughter's three," she said. "She might not understand it now, but when she's older, she will definitely understand the legacy that her Big Daddy left behind for her" (Sullivan 1).
[You may watch a “Good Morning America” (GMA) produced video of this shooting incident by pasting the following on Google]
Police body camera footage show new details in Andre Hill ...
Works cited:
Bruner, Bethany. “New Documents Show Ex-Columbus Officer Adam Coy Had History of Inappropriate Reactions.” The Columbus Dispatch, January 12, 2021. Net. https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/local/2021/01/12/fired-cpd-officer-adam-coy-had-history-bad-reactions-under-stress/6644482002/
Narciso, Dean. “Family, Friends and Strangers Support Andre' Hill, Demand Police Reforms.” The Columbus Dispatch, updated December 28, 2020. Net. https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/crime/2020/12/26/friends-family-and-others-held-news-event-and-vigil-andre-hill/4050881001/
Sullivan, Becky. “City of Columbus To Pay $10 Million in Settlement with Family of Andre Hill.” NPR, May 14, 2021. Net. https://www.npr.org/2021/05/14/996979538/city-of-columbus-to-pay-10-million-in-settlement-with-family-of-andre-hill
Wright, Will. “Columbus Police Kill Black Man Weeks after Protests against Brutality.” The New York Times, updated May 14, 2021. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/us/columbus-ohio-shooting.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article
Wright, Will. “Former Columbus Police Officer Is Charged with Murder.” The New York Times, February 3, 2021. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/us/adam-coy-columbus-murder-andre-hill.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article
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