The former Columbus police officer accused of killing Andre Hill is charged with murder, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced at a news conference Wednesday night. Adam Coy is accused of fatally shooting Hill, a 47-year-old Black man, during an early morning meeting in a garage at the end of December.
Coy was charged with murder in connection with a felony, criminal assault, dereliction of duty for failing to activate his body camera and dereliction of duty for failing to tell his fellow officer that he believed Hill was in danger, Yost said. The grand jury did not charge Coy with premeditated murder.
“Andre Hill should not be dead,” Yost said, adding later, “I believe the evidence in this case supports the accusation.”
Benjamin Crump
Authorities said the shooting happened after a neighbor reported a person in a residential street at about 1:30 a.m. who repeatedly started and stopped the car of a sports utility vehicle. On camera footage, Coy Hill was seen approaching what was standing in a garage. When Hill walks in the direction of Coy with a cell phone in his left hand, Coy shoots down his service weapon. Hill fell to the ground when Coy yelled at him to show his hands.
The video does not show how Coy provides medical care. Hill later died of his injuries and a preliminary autopsy ruled that his death was a murder.
Coy was arrested peacefully at his law firm earlier Wednesday night and will make his first appearance in court on Thursday, Yost said. Coy’s lawyers said he would deny guilt on the charges.
“The function of the grand jury is simple – to determine whether there are probable grounds for indictment,” attorneys Mark Collins and Kaitlyn Stephens said in a statement. “This is a very different and more important, much lower standard than the state of Ohio will have to prove to be tried.”
“This case needs to be judged on an objective and subjective standard,” the lawyers added. “The overall circumstances must be taken into account along with the training and experience of Officer Coy, and this must be seen through the lens of a reasonable police officer; not with the benefit of 20/20 afterwards.”
Officer Amy Detweiler, who was on the scene when Coy died, he later told investigators she heard Coy shout, “There’s a gun in his other hand, there’s a gun in his other hand!” moments before firing his weapon. Authorities said no weapons were found at the scene. Detweiler also told investigators that she did not see a weapon, and that she “did not detect any threats from Mr. Hill.”
Officials said Coy did not activate his body camera before the shooting. Instead, the video of the encounter was captured by a 60-minute “look back” feature that Coy activated when he turned on his camera after the shooting. The “look back” function does not capture sound.
Two days after the shooting, the city police chief said he had recommended Coy’s termination.
“I have seen everything I need to see to conclude that Officer Coy should be terminated immediately,” Columbus Police Chief Thomas Quinlan wrote in a public statement announcing his recommendation.
In his letter to the city security director of the city, Quinlan said that Coy “has no immediate reason to believe that criminal activity was going on and that he certainly did not have the chance to believe that Hill would pose a threat to officers. does not offer, adding that Coy “violated his right to hold office as a police officer. ‘
Quinlan noted in his report that Coy “reacted with deep distress by using wickedness as he realized that Mr Hill was unarmed”, and said that Coy could be heard on his body camera “getting physically ill” the aftermath of the shooting. But he nonetheless 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 termination, the public safety director said his actions “do not meet the oath of a Columbus police officer, or the standards we and the community demand of our officers.”
Hill’s family, represented by attorney Benjamin Crump, had earlier called for Coy to be arrested. Kromp tweeted on Wednesday that the charges are the “first steps to get JUSTICE Andre and his family.”