COLUMBUS, OHio (AP) – A white Ohio police officer was charged with murder on Wednesday in the latest fallout from the December shooting of 47-year-old Andre Hill, a black man, the state attorney general said.
Columbus Police Officer Adam Coy was indicted by a Franklin County grand jury following an investigation by the Ohio Attorney General’s office. The charges facing Coy, a 19-year veteran of the Corps, also include dereliction of duty for not using his body camera and for not telling the other officer that he believed Hill was a danger.
“In this case, the citizens of Franklin County, represented by the individual major jurors, found a likely reason to believe that Mr. Coy had committed a crime when he killed Andre Hill with gunfire,” Attorney General Dave Yost said Wednesday evening. at a press conference. .
He added, “Truth is justice’s best friend, and the grand jury has found truth here.”
Coy and another officer had responded to a neighbor’s non-emergency call after 1 a.m. on Dec. 22 about a car in front of his home in the northwest side of town that had been driving, then turned off and turned back on, according to a copy of the call released in December.
Police bodycam showed Hill emerging from a garage holding a cell phone in his left hand for seconds before being fatally shot by Coy. There is no audio because Coy had not activated the body camera; an automatic “review” function captured the recording without sound.
In the moments after Hill was fatally shot, additional bodycam footage shows two other Columbus officers running over Hill and handcuffing him before leaving him alone again. According to the released footage, none of them provided first aid, although Hill barely moved, groaned, and bled while lying on the garage floor.
Coy, who had a long history of civilian complaints, was fired on December 28 for failing to activate his body camera prior to the confrontation and for failing to provide Hill with medical attention.
A message was left on Wednesday in which Coy’s lawyer was looking for comment. The union representing Columbus’s police officers has issued a brief statement saying it will wait to see how things turn out.
Coy “will have the opportunity to present facts on his behalf at trial, just like any other citizen,” said Keith Ferrell, president of the local FOP. “At that point, we will see all the facts with the public for the first time as the trial unfolds.”
The charges against Coy come less than a week after Columbus Police Chief Thomas Quinlan was forced from office after Mayor Andrew Ginther said he had lost faith in his ability to make necessary changes in the department.
Hill’s family, still mourning Hill’s death, are happy with the charges they see as a first step, attorney Michael Wright said.
It’s important to hold these agents accountable for their bad deeds and their bad deeds, ”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 officers and their interaction with individuals who should not be killed or tolerated excessive force. “
This is the second Columbus police officer recently charged with murder. Former Deputy Team Officer Andrew Mitchell was charged in 2019 deadly shooting a woman during an undercover prostitution investigation from 2018.
Mitchell also faces federal charges of forcing women to have sex with him under threat of arrest, pressuring others to cover up crimes and lying to federal detectives when he said he never had sex with prostitutes . He pleaded not guilty.