Officer Adam Coy lost his badge and gun after killing Andre Maurice Hill, 47, who was walking towards the officer with a cell phone in his left hand and his right invisible when Coy opened fire, officials said.
The officer was responding to a neighbor’s non-emergency disturbance call, according to the Columbus Department of Public Security.
Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, hours after attending Goodson’s funeral, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther called for Coy to resign. Ginther said Hill was an expected guest at the house where he was shot and he “did not commit any crime”.
AG commits to ‘seek the truth’
Authorities are in the early stages of an investigation that was handed over to the Ohio Attorney General and the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
In a statement on Wednesday, Attorney General Dave Yost said the investigators “will conduct a thorough, independent and specialized investigation – a search for the truth”.
“What we have now is an incomplete record,” said Yost. “We must allow the record to be completed and the evidence to be gathered. Only the truth – the whole truth and nothing else – will result in justice.”
Coy and another officer who answered the call were equipped with body cameras, but they did not turn them on until after the shooting, according to the Department of Public Security. A function of the body-worn camera technology used by the Columbus police provides a 60-second retrospective view, but does not record any audio during that period, so any conversation before or during the shooting is not heard.
When the policeman turns on his camera, he can be heard shouting commands to Hill, who was lying on the floor groaning with danger.
“After further analysis of the incident, today, I am calling for the immediate resignation of Coy … who failed in two directions: not to plug his camera close to his body and to stop offering help after the shooting and not to help,” said Ginther .
Altogether, Ginther said investigators had several minutes – “five, maybe seven or eight” minutes – of camera footage. He said Hill’s family analyzed the footage on Wednesday.
Ginther said that “I had never seen camera footage like this, where there was literally no attempt to revive and help this man, who committed no crime and was dying.”
No weapons were recovered
In a statement released by the Department of Public Security, Columbus police chief Thomas Quinlan said he was “concerned about the preliminary facts”. Coy was “released from office” while he was under investigation.
Columbus’s Director of Public Security, Ned Pettus, said that, by law, Coy is a civil servant and has the right to due process. CNN contacted Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge No. 9, which represents the officer.
Coy answered the call shortly after 1:37 am, after the unidentified neighbor who called 911 reported that a man had been sitting in his SUV for a long time, starting and stopping the engine several times.
When police arrived at the house on the northwest side of the city, they found the garage door open and a man inside, city officials said.
The camera footage of the body captured in the 60-second look back shows a flashlight illuminating Hill, who walks beside a car towards the policeman, the cell phone in his left hand and his right hand invisible.
The officer, in seconds, retreats before firing his weapon, hitting Hill. When the audio starts, Coy orders Hill to put his hands to the side.
Hill died in the hospital just before 2:30 am. No weapons were recovered at the scene.
“As 2020 comes to an end, with the tragic succession of shootings involving police officers that have given rise to so many unforgettable hashtags, we are presented with another convincing example of why police reforms and a national standard for police behavior are so desperately needed” . Crump said.
“We won’t stop until we get justice for Andre.”