COLUMB, OH (AP) – A white Ohio police officer was charged Wednesday with a charge of murder in the aftermath of the December shooting death of a black man, Andre Hill, 47, said the state attorney general.
Columbus police officer Adam Coy was charged by a Franklin County grand jury following an investigation by the Ohio Attorney General’s office. Charges faced by Coy, a 19-year-old force veteran, also include resigning from duty for not using the body camera and for not communicating to the other officer who believed Hill posed a danger.
“In this case, the citizens of Franklin County, represented by the grand juries, found probable cause to believe that Mr. Coy committed a crime when he killed Andre Hill by gunfire,” Attorney General Dave Yost said in a press conference wednesday night.
He added: “Truth is the best friend of justice and the grand jury here found the truth.”
Coy and another officer had responded to a neighbor’s non-urgent call after 1 a.m. Dec. 22 about a car in front of his home on the northwest side of the city that had been running, then turned off and then lit, according to a copy of the call published in December.
Police camera footage showed Hill coming out of a garage and holding a cell phone in his left hand seconds before Coy fatally shot him. There is no audio because Coy had not activated the body camera; an automatic “look back” function captured the capture without audio.
In the moments after Hill was fatally shot, additional images from the body camera show that two other Columbus officers rolled Hill and handcuffed him before leaving him alone again. None of them, according to the published images, offered first aid, although Hill barely moved, moaned and bled as he lay on the garage floor.
Coy, who had a long history of citizen complaints, was fired Dec. 28 for failing to activate the body’s camera prior to the confrontation and for failing to provide medical assistance to Hill.
A message was left Wednesday with Coy’s lawyer seeking comment. The union representing Columbus police officers issued a brief statement saying it will wait to see how the case unfolds.
Coy “will have the ability to present facts on his behalf in a trial like any other citizen,” said Keith Ferrell, president of the local FOP. “Right now, we’ll see all the facts for the first time with the public as the process unfolds.”
Coy’s indictment comes less than a week after Columbus police chief Thomas Quinlan was forced to step down after Mayor Andrew Ginther said he lost confidence in his ability to do the same. necessary changes to the department.
Hill’s family, while mourning Hill’s death, is happy with the indictment they consider a first step, said attorney Michael Wright.
It is important to start holding these officers accountable for their bad actions and bad deeds, ”Wright said. “I think it will go a long way for one, the public, to rely on law enforcement, for two, to potentially change the behavior of agents and their interaction with individuals who should not be killed or who should not endure excessive force “.
He is the second Columbus police officer recently charged with murder. Former Deputy Squadron Officer Andrew Mitchell was indicted in 2019 with fatal shooting at a woman during a 2018 covert prostitution investigation.
Mitchell also faces federal charges of forcing women to have sex with him under threat of arrest, pressuring other people to help cover up crimes and lying to federal investigators when he said he had never had sex. with prostitutes. He pleaded guilty.