The former Columbus police officer accused of killing Andre Hill was indicted for murder, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced at a news conference on Wednesday night. Adam Coy is accused of fatally shooting 47-year-old black man Hill during a morning encounter in a residential garage in late December.
Coy was charged with murder for committing a crime, criminal assault, abandoning duty for failing to activate the body’s camera, and abandoning duty for failing to tell his fellow police officer that he believed Hill was a danger, Yost said. The grand jurors did not indict Coy for intentional murder.
“Andre Hill should not be dead,” said Yost, adding later that “I believe the evidence in this case supports the prosecution.”
Benjamin Crump
Authorities said the shooting occurred after a neighbor reported that a person was repeatedly starting and stopping an SUV engine at around 1:30 am on a residential street. Images from the body camera showed Coy approaching Hill, who was inside a garage. As Hill walked towards Coy holding a cell phone in his left hand, Coy fired his service gun. Hill fell to the floor while Coy shouted for him to show his hands.
The video did not show Coy providing medical care. Hill later died of his injuries, and a preliminary autopsy determined his death to be homicide.
Coy was peacefully detained Wednesday night at his lawyer’s office and will make his first appearance in court on Thursday, said Yost. Coy’s lawyers said he will plead not guilty to the charges.
“The function of the grand jury is unique – to determine whether there is a probable cause for the accusation,” lawyers Mark Collins and Kaitlyn Stephens said in a statement. “This is a very different standard and, more importantly, much lower than what the state of Ohio will have to prove at the trial.”
“This case must be judged on an objective and subjective standard,” added the lawyers. “The totality of circumstances must be taken into account together with the training and experience of Officer Coy, and must be viewed through the lens of a reasonable police officer; not with the benefit of a 20/20 retrospective view.”
Officer Amy Detweiler, who was on the scene when Coy died, he later told investigators that he heard Coy shout, “There’s a gun in the other hand, and a gun in the other!” moments before firing your weapon. Authorities said no weapons were found at the scene. Detweiler also told investigators that he did not see a weapon and that “he did not observe any threats from Mr. Hill”.
Authorities said Coy did not activate the body camera before the shooting. Instead, the video of the encounter was captured by a 60-second “look back” feature that Coy activated when he turned on the camera after the shooting. The look back feature does not capture audio.
Two days after the shooting, the city police chief said he recommended Coy’s dismissal.
“I saw everything I need to see to come to the conclusion that Officer Coy should be fired immediately,” wrote Columbus Police Chief Thomas Quinlan in a public statement announcing his recommendation.
In his letter to the city’s public security director, Quinlan said that Coy “had no immediate reason to believe that criminal activities were underway and certainly was not predisposed to believe that Hill presented any threat to the police,” adding that Coy “violated his right to hold the position of police officer. ”
Quinlan noted in his report that Coy “reacted with great distress using profanity when realizing that Hill was unarmed”, and said that Coy could be heard on his body camera “getting physically ill” after the shooting. Still, he wrote that “Officer Coy’s use of force was not objectively reasonable, he did not use trained techniques, did not use his BWC properly, and did not provide medical assistance.”
Coy was fired days later. In a statement announcing Coy’s resignation, the director of public security said his actions “do not live up to the oath of a Columbus police officer or the standards that we and the community demand of our officers.”
Hill’s family, represented by attorney Benjamin Crump, had previously asked for Coy’s arrest. Crump tweeted Wednesday that the charges are the “first steps to obtain JUSTICE from André and his family”.