Former Ohio Cop Adam Coy Charged With Andre Hill Murder

The former Columbus police officer accused of killing Andre Hill has been charged with murder, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost told a press conference Wednesday night. Adam Coy is accused of killing Hill, a 47-year-old black man, during an early morning encounter in a residential garage in late December.

Coy has been charged with murder in the commission of a felony, felony assault, dereliction of duty for failing to activate his body camera, and dereliction of duty for failing to tell his co-worker he believed Hill presented a danger , Yost said. The grand jurors did not charge Coy with intentional murder.

“Andre Hill shouldn’t be dead,” Yost said, later adding that “I believe the evidence in this case supports the indictment.”

Authorities said the shooting took place after a neighbor reported someone repeatedly starting and stopping the engine of an SUV around 1:30 a.m. on a residential street. Body camera footage showed Coy approaching Hill, who was standing inside a garage. As Hill walked over to Coy holding a cell phone in his left hand, Coy fired his service weapon. Hill fell to the ground as Coy yelled at him to show his hands.

The video did not show Coy providing medical treatment. Hill later died of his injuries and a preliminary autopsy ruled his death a homicide.

Coy was peacefully arrested earlier Wednesday evening at his attorney’s office and will appear in court on Thursday, Yost said. Coy’s lawyers said he would plead not guilty to the charges.

“The function of the grand jury is singular – to determine whether there is a probable cause for indictment,” attorneys Mark Collins and Kaitlyn Stephens said in a statement. “This is a much different standard and, most importantly, much lower than what the State of Ohio will have to prove at trial.”

“This case must be judged on a standard that is both objective and subjective,” the lawyers added. “The totality of the circumstances must be considered with Constable Coy’s training and experience, and he must be viewed through the lens of a reasonable policeman; not in 20/20 hindsight.”

Officer Amy Detweiler, who was on stage when Coy died, she later told investigators that she heard Coy scream, “There’s a gun in his other hand, there’s a gun in his other hand!” a few moments before firing his weapon. Authorities said no weapons were found at the scene. Detweiler also told investigators that she had not seen a weapon and that she “had not observed any threats from Mr. Hill.”

Officials said Coy did not activate his body camera before filming. Instead, video of the encounter was captured by a 60-second ‘rollback’ feature that Coy activated when he turned on his camera after the shoot. The “look back” function does not capture sound.

Two days after the shooting, the town’s police chief said he recommended Coy’s dismissal.

“I saw everything I needed to come to the conclusion that Constable Coy should be terminated immediately,” Columbus Police Chief Thomas Quinlan wrote in a public statement announcing his recommendation.

In his letter to the city’s director of public safety, Quinlan said that Coy “had no immediate reason to believe that criminal activity was taking place and certainly had no predisposition to believe that Mr. Hill had a problem. threat to officers, “adding that Coy” had violated his right to retain his post as a police officer. ”

Quinlan noted in his report that Coy “reacted with deep distress using profanity upon realizing that Mr. Hill was unarmed,” and said Coy could be heard on his body camera “becoming physically ill” at the aftermath of the shooting. But he nevertheless wrote that “Constable Coy’s use of force was not objectively reasonable, he did not use trained techniques, did not use his BWC properly and did not render ‘medical assistance”.

Coy was fired a few days later. In a statement announcing Coy’s dismissal, the director of public safety said his actions “fall short of a Columbus cop’s oath, or the standards that we, and the community, demand of our officers. “.

Hill’s family, represented by attorney Benjamin Crump, had previously called for Coy’s arrest. Bursting tweeted wednesday that the charges are the “first steps in obtaining JUSTICE from André and his family”.