COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – In the minutes that passed after a police officer shot Andre Hill into his friend’s garage, officers searched the garage for cartridges, tied crime scene tape around the house and blocked the Street.
At one point, two Columbus officials rolled over Hill and put handcuffs on him before leaving him alone again. None of them, according to images from the body camera released on Thursday, offered any first aid, although Hill, a 47-year-old black man, barely moved, moaning and bleeding while lying on the garage floor.
Approximately 10 minutes passed before a police supervisor appeared and asked, “Is anyone doing anything for him?” It was only then that an officer started pumping Hill’s chest, who was later pronounced dead in a hospital on December 22.
While police officer Adam Coy, who is white, was fired this week on charges of incompetence and gross negligence in the fatal shooting, officers who have not treated Hill are also under investigation for not following department policy.
Police chief Thomas Quinlan said he was appalled at the lack of compassion shown in videos from body cameras.
“As a police chief, and just as a human being, the events of last week left me shaken and heartbroken by Andre Hill’s family,” Quinlan said in a statement. “Every man and woman who wears this badge must feel the same way.”
On Thursday, family members criticized the police treatment of Hill at an emotional press conference.
“The way my brother was treated, for me, is like an animal,” said his sister, Michelle Hairston. “He was attacked. He didn’t stand a chance. “
“Where is humanity?” said Benjamin Crump, a civil rights defender and lawyer who represents the family and who, with his family, asked that Coy be arrested and charged. “This is a few days before Christmas. Why is no one being like Christ? “
Coy, a 17-year-old force member, shot Hill when he left the garage holding a cell phone with his left hand and his right hand invisible. Another police officer at the scene said he saw no threat and did not see a gun, contrary to Coy’s mistaken claim.
According to the video from the video camera released on Thursday, Coy told another police officer who was driving him out of the house: “I have to find out what I missed.
“We’ll take care of that, I swear,” replied Officer Jared Barsotti.
Coy and police officer Amy Detweiler were answering a non-emergency call from a neighbor when they found Hill.
A woman inside a house where Hill was shot told police, moments after the shooting, that he was coming to bring her money, according to footage from the body camera.
“He was bringing me money for Christmas. He didn’t do anything, ”she shouted.
About five minutes after Hill was shot, a police officer shouted, “Let’s handcuff him. It is still moving. “
Shawna Barnett, another of Hill’s sisters, called the officers directly for her lack of action.
“How can you sleep at night knowing that you did it and left it there, and had the courage to turn it over and handcuff it, but didn’t offer it any help?” she said Thursday.
Hill was shot two weeks after a white sheriff from Franklin County shot 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr., who was black, outside Goodson’s home on the north side of Columbus.
Twenty religious leaders, including the Roman Catholic bishop of the diocese of Columbus, called for changes on Thursday in policing downtown Ohio. The problem is more profound than “some bad apples” in departments, the leaders said in a letter sent to the city of Columbus and police.
“The deepest problem is the existence of a systemic culture in many police departments, as evidenced here in Columbus, where black men are seen as threats by the police,” said the letter. “The result is that black communities always feel harassed and threatened.”
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Seewer reported from Toledo. Kantele Franko in Columbus and Mark Gillispie of Cleveland contributed.