COLUMBUS, OHio (AP) – A white Ohio police officer was indicted on Wednesday on a murder charge in the latest fallout following the December shooting death of Andre Hill, a 47-year-old black man, the attorney general said. state.
Columbus policeman Adam Coy was indicted by a Franklin County jury following an investigation by the Ohio Attorney General’s office. The charges faced by Coy, a 19-year-old veteran of the force, also include abandoning duty for not using the body’s camera and for not telling the other officer that he believed Hill posed a danger.
“In this case, the citizens of Franklin County, represented by the great individual jurors, found a probable cause for believing that Mr. Coy committed a crime by shooting Andre Hill,” Attorney General Dave Yost told a news conference at Wednesday night.
He added: “The truth is justice’s best friend, and the grand jury here found the truth.”
Coy and another policeman responded to a neighbor’s non-emergency call after 1 am on December 22 about a car in front of his home on the northwest side of the city that was working, then hung up and called again, according to a copy of the call launched in December.
Images from the police body camera showed Hill emerging from a garage and holding a cell phone in his left hand seconds before he was shot dead by Coy. There is no audio because Coy did not activate the body camera; an automatic “look back” feature captured the footage without audio.
Moments after Hill was shot dead, other images show that two other Columbus officers rolled Hill over and put handcuffs on him before leaving him alone again. None of them, according to the released footage, offered any first aid, although Hill was barely moving, moaning and bleeding while lying on the garage floor.
Coy, who had a long history of complaints from citizens, was fired on December 28 for failing to activate his body’s camera before the confrontation and for not providing Hill with medical help.
A message was left on Wednesday with Coy’s lawyer seeking comment. The union representing the 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, just like any other citizen,” said Keith Ferrell, president of the local FOP. “At that time, we will see all the facts for the first time with the public as the process unfolds.”
Coy’s charge 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 make the necessary changes in the department.
Hill’s family, while still mourning Hill’s death, is happy with the prosecution, which they see as a first step, said attorney Michael Wright.
It is important to start holding these officers accountable for their bad deeds and actions, ”said Wright. “I think it will go a long way for one, the public to trust law enforcement, for two, to potentially change the behavior of police officers and their interaction with individuals who should not be killed or should not withstand excessive force.”
This is the second Columbus police officer recently charged with murder. Former squad vice-officer Andrew Mitchell was charged in 2019 with a death shot at a woman during a secret prostitution investigation in 2018.
Mitchell also faces federal charges of forcing women to have sex with him under threat of imprisonment, putting pressure on others to help cover up crimes and lying to federal investigators when he said he never had sex with prostitutes. He pleaded not guilty.