WASHINGTON, United States
A black man died at the hands of a white policeman and Columbus, The second case in a few weeks in this city in the northern United States, which sparked outrage in a country that is experiencing a historic anti-racist and anti-brutality movement since the boreal spring.
Andre Maurici Hill, 47, was in the garage of a house Monday night when the uniformed man shot him several times. Police had received a call to go to the scene for a minor incident.
Images from the officer’s laptop camera show Hill walking toward the officer with a cell phone in his left hand, while his other hand remains invisible. Seconds later, the officer fires his weapon and the civilian collapses. No sound is produced to explain the circumstances of the shooting.
Officer Adam Coy and his colleague waited several minutes before approaching the still-living victim, who died shortly afterwards.
Coy was suspended. According to local media, there were already allegations against him for excessive use of force.
Hill, who was unarmed, was the second African-American killed by police in less than three weeks in Columbus.
Casey Goodson Jr., 23, was shot several times on Dec. 4 when he returned home after buying some sandwiches.
The killings come as the United States has been shaken by historic protests against racial injustice and police brutality, sparked by the May assassination of African-American George Floyd.
Floyd, also unarmed, suffocated under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Horrified passers-by filmed his death, and the images quickly spread.
“Once again officers see a black man and conclude that he is criminal and dangerous,” lawyer Ben Crump, who defends several families of victims, including Floyd’s, criticized on Wednesday.
With Hill, there are 96 black victims at the hands of a policeman from Floyd, the lawyer said, denouncing “a tragic sequence of shootings” by uniformed men.
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther said he was “outraged” by Hill’s death and felt “very disturbed” by the fact that neither police applied first aid to Hill.
The official called for Coy’s “immediate dismissal.”