Another officer who responded with Coy said he did not see Hill’s right side and did not see any weapons. According to the report, he heard Coy say he saw a gun and shouted, “There’s a gun in his hand, there’s a gun in his other hand.”
The notes of the interview of this other officer were made public on Tuesday by the police after CNN requested the documents.
Hill was unarmed and Coy’s body camera did not capture audio because he did not activate it until after the shooting. But a rewind function captured 60 seconds of video without audio before Coy turned on the camera. The video, released by the police department, shows Coy approaching Hill and the encounter that led to the shooting.
Brian Steel, vice president of the local shelter of the Fraternal Order of Police, said Coy has ten days from the date of his dismissal to ask the organization to take his case to arbitration, and not yet he has done it. Nor is it automatic for the lodge to defend Coy’s case. Decisions are made on a case-by-case basis, Steel said.
Coy could also ask a court or public service commission to intervene, Steel said. CNN was unable to reach Coy for comment Tuesday. The other officer also interviewed criminal investigators from the state’s Criminal Investigation Bureau at the scene, according to a report on the shooting by police chief Thomas Quinlan with the help of investigators from internal affairs.
The report noted that the agents involved behaved differently from the agents in other traits to which it has responded.
“I have responded to many filming scenes involving officers and have spoken to many agents following these critical incidents,” the report stated. “There was something very different in the officers’ engagement after this critical incident that is difficult to describe for this letter.”
The report, signed by Quinlan, noted that other people were concerned after reviewing the video and observing site agents.
“Based on my direct observations of this meeting, I informed the director’s office and the mayor of what I was attending. I explained that I was observing facts with my own eyes and ears that, in my experience, went cause many alarms about the officer’s actions in using deadly force, ”it reads.
An internal investigation into other agents at the site is ongoing and it is unclear whether anyone else will face the discipline. An independent investigation by the state Criminal Investigation Bureau is underway, to examine whether criminal charges are appropriate.
Coy and the other officer had been sent on a riot call by someone who was “continuously restarting a gray SUV” and found Hill inside a garage. According to their interview, they both had their weapons stretched and approximated at an angle from opposite sides.
Coy asked Hill to leave the garage and Hill did not respond verbally, but began to leave the garage.
Hill’s left hand had a cell phone but his right hand was “hidden behind his leg.” According to published reports, Hill dropped his left hand before Coy shot him, but the video of Coy passing by is not clearly seen, and Columbus police have not released any other video.
“(The other officer) stated that he did not see any weapon. (She) stated that Agent Coy observed a firearm and shouted,” There’s a gun in his other hand, there’s a gun. in his other hand! “(She) heard gunshots at that moment,” according to notes from the interview with the other officer. “(She) had nothing else to add and the interview was over.”
The note indicated that there was no audible evidence of the encounter because Coy did not activate the camera. But once Coy’s camera was on and had audio, the report noted that Coy was “verbally awake and issuing orders” while “Hill was lying on his back to officers and was clearly in medical difficulty.”
“Officer Coy dropped Mr. Hill and immediately reacted with deep anguish using profane words as he realized that Mr. Hill was not armed,” the report states.
Site officers did not perform first aid, but called for paramedics “immediately.” Coy asked the other officer for a support officer, who would normally help an officer “through a critical event,” according to the documents.
“Agent Coy was overheard when his body-worn camera was ill,” the report states. “Officers began securing the crime scene with tape and finally handcuffed Mr. Hill. Medical care was only provided a few minutes later.”
The report notes that there was a “prolonged delay” for paramedics to arrive and “no local officer administered first aid or provided reassurance to Mr Hill until a few minutes later”.
Coy arrived at the scene around 1:42 a.m. and Hill was shot minutes later, according to the chronology of events in the Quinlan report, and Hill was pronounced dead at 2:25 a.m. on Riverside. Hospital.