Adam Coy, the former Columbus police officer who shot Andre Hill in December, has been indicted on murder charges by a grand jury. Ohio’s Attorney General, Dave Yost, announced the charges on Wednesday. The charges include one count of murder, one count of felonious assault and two counts of dereliction duty.
Coy was arrested at his attorney’s office on Wednesday. According to reports, he did not resist, and was taken away peacefully. His charges represent a serious legal hurdle: the body cam footage of his shooting of Andre Hill has drawn sharp criticism from both activists and other police officers.
The Shooting
On December 22, around 1 AM, Officer Coy responded to a call that someone in a parking garage was repeatedly starting and stopping their engine. Upon arriving in the garage, Coy determined that the vehicle description matched Hill’s and began walking towards it. When Hill approached Coy with a cellphone in his left hand, Coy fired on Hill, hitting him with a single shot.
Body cam footage shows officers handcuffing Hill’s apparently lifeless body and then shuffling about for roughly 5 minutes before administering aid. Hill would later die from his injuries. He was 47.
Another officer on the scene, Amy Detweiler, says she heard Coy shout out that Hill had a gun before shooting him. However, Detweiler stated she saw no weapon on Hill and didn’t see him do anything threatening.
Body Cam Footage
The prosecution is likely to make note of the state of Coy’s body cam during the incident. Coy did not turn on his body cam during the shooting, he only turned it on after Hill had already hit the ground. However, his body cam was equipped with a sixty-second “look back” feature that captured the last minute of activity, albeit without sound.
As such, Officer Detweiler’s statement regarding Coy’s statements during the incident are critical to the trial. Detweiler also claims that when Coy learned that Hill was unarmed, he became visibly distressed, even becoming physically ill.
Coy was fired by the Columbus Police Department in January. The reasoning behind the firing was that he used unreasonable force in his encounter with Hill. Indeed, the case has caused an uproar in the city, with many openly decrying police use of force. In the aftermath of the Summer 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, a spotlight has been placed on police conduct and police use of force.
