Police camera footage released Thursday shows officers from Columbus, Ohio, handcuffing a seemingly lifeless black man after he was shot several times and then standing for five minutes and 11 seconds without giving first aid.
Andre Hill, 47, had a cell phone in his left hand, but had no weapons when he left a friend’s garage on Dec. 22 and was shot dead.
After the shooting, a woman came out of the house and told police, “She was bringing me Christmas money. She didn’t do anything,” according to the body camera video. Police ordered him to return to the interior of the residence without asking him any questions, according to the images.
Ben Crump, the Hill family’s lawyer, said a now-fired officer opened fire without first giving any verbal orders to Hill to stop him and raise his hands. Crump said Hill was shot four times.
“It’s very hard to stay here and stay calm, because I’m completely outraged by how they treated my brother,” Hill’s older sister Shawna Barnett said at a news conference after the camera videos were released. corporal. without sense. They showed no humanity towards him. As you sleep at night knowing that you did and left him there and you have the courage to turn around and handcuff him but offer no help. Nothing “.
Hill’s family asked prosecutors to criminally prosecute former Columbus officer Adam Coy for Hill’s death.
Hill’s daughter Karissa Hill, 27, who lived with her father along with her three young children, said in a shaky voice that she will have to remember for the rest of her life “how no one has helped her. “.
“As there are 22 agents on the scene and with body camera footage and none of them helped my father. But instead, the first time they touch him is to put on handcuffs,” he said.
Crump said police showed the video to family members along with him and other lawyers working on the case Thursday morning, and said the images confirmed Andrew Hill’s “unnecessary, unwarranted and senseless shooting.” .
“Where is humanity for Andre Hill? Where is humanity for this citizen of Columbus who had not committed any crime, had no weapon, was unarmed, only had a cell phone? Where is humanity for this citizen, for this father, this grandfather, this brother? “” Crump said. “It makes you wonder if they’d been trying to save his life by putting the handcuffs on him, would it be Andre Hill with us today?”
Hill was shot dead after Coy and another officer, Amy Detweiler, answered an emergency 311 call for a noise complaint.
The video from the body camera was released a day after police released an “informative summary” of the interviews the investigators conducted with Detweiler. In the interview, Detweiler said he heard Coy shout that Hill had a gun in his hand. He couldn’t remember if Coy gave Hill the order to drop a gun.
Detweiler said he did not see a gun in Hill’s hand and did not observe any threats from Hill during the incident.
Coy did not turn on his body camera until he fired at Hill. But his camera turned on automatically and recorded 60 seconds of the silent episode.
Crump said that after Coy shot Hill, he and Detweiler were near him for five minutes and 11 seconds.
“He’s on the ground struggling to breathe and none of the police officers provided him with medical assistance,” Crump said.
He said that although Hill remained motionless on the ground, a police supervisor told officers to handcuff him. Crump said officers left Hill handcuffed for 13 minutes without providing any first aid.
“In the video, he is handcuffed to a dying, unarmed man who fired several times for a non-emergency 311 call,” Crump said. “What’s his crime? Why are they handcuffing him?”
Michelle Hariston, another of Hill’s sisters, added that after watching the videos from the body camera, she got the impression that police officers were treating her brother “like an animal.”
“He was robbed and not given any opportunities,” Hariston said. “We are completely outraged by what happened.”
Columbus police chief Thomas Quinlan released a video statement Thursday that said his first reaction to watching the videos “was anger and deep disappointment.”
“I know it’s horrible for everyone who looks at it,” Quinlan said. “One of the core values of the Columbus Police Division is compassion. And the camera video brought in today shows us little evidence. Let me repeat what I said last week: Andre Hill should be alive today. One “Columbus police officer is responsible for her death. I can’t defend her. I can’t do it right.”
Quinlan added that Coy’s violations of politics and police standards “were so clear and so blatant that his cessation could not wait.”
He said Coy is facing an independent criminal investigation by the state and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther also issued a statement condemning what he saw in the camera images of the body.
“Like most who have seen the additional camera footage worn by the Andrew Hill shooting and the ensuing time, I am horrified by the time that passed before any officer provided assistance to Mr. Hill,” Ginther said. capabilities to provide potentially life-saving care and, at the very least, comfort in these situations. One of the core values of the Police Division is compassion. None of this was evident in the video posted today. “
Ginther said he has ordered Quinlan to investigate the incident “completely and thoroughly, and to hold accountable all officers who do not meet Division standards.”
But Michael Wright, another lawyer representing Hill’s family, alleged that the police department had many chances of dismissing Coy in the past, adding that, according to an investigation by his office, 90 complaints were found against Coy dating back to 2001. He said 16 of the complaints were credited.
“That means some kind of action should have been taken,” Wright said.
The lawyer did not detail what the allegations concerning Coy came from and the police have not yet ruled on the ex-officer’s file.
Wright showed reporters an enlarged copy of a report Quinlan wrote about Coy when he was his patrol lieutenant in 2008.
“In a letter I wrote in 2008 while I was Officer Coy’s patrol lieutenant, I made the following remark about, if sustained improvements are not fully made, a decision must be made as to whether Officer Coy can be saved.” , Quinlan wrote, according to the document Wright shows journalists. “If the interventions described above do not produce the desired results, a change towards completion would be guaranteed, as Officer Coy’s service in the Police Division will have lost all future value.”
“That didn’t have to happen,” Wright said. “If the Columbus police department had done its job and fired Adam Coy before that happened, we wouldn’t be here today.”
Andy Fies of ABC News contributed to this report.