Shooting victim’s supporters demanding police reforms
In the parking COLUMBUS— lot of Brentnell Community Recreation Center where Andre’ Hill played basketball, learned to play chess and simply hung out with friends, more than 100 people gathered decades later to share stories and demand police reforms.
Corey McDonald went to Hocking Technical College with Hill and remembered Hill on Saturday evening as passionate and skilled in the culinary arts.
“If he tasted it. If he smelled it. He couldmake it,” saidMcDonald, of Hill, who was shot byColumbus Police OfficerAdamCoy three days before Christmas during a non-emergency service call while visiting a friend at a home in the 100 block of Oberlin Drive.
“He was smart. He was a good guy,” McDonald said. “He was a good friend.”
“You get him in a dark room with a fork and some salt and pepper and amatch, he’s gonna make something good,” said McDonald.
Hill, 47, known to friends and family as Big Daddy, also was passionate about people, active in Black Lives Matter causes andwaswearing a BLM shirt early Tuesday morning when he was confronted by Coy and a female officer, who has not been publicly named, in the entrance of the open garage of the home.
Shawna Barrett recalled her older brother as a talker, who would entertain, but also educate.
“Hewould talk to anyone. He spoke to everyone, welcomed everyone and treated everyone the same.”
“He was always one to give a helping hand with no excuses, no questions. You could always count on Andre’.”
“Hewould neverhurt anyone. So for them to pull out (a gun) and kill my brother for no reason is unacceptable,”
Barrett said, pausing to compose herself. “Hewasn’t even given an opportunity to even finish a sentence before the cop shot him.”
She assailed the police for denying Hill aid for more than five minuteswhile they attended to Coy, who was coughing, and offering him water.
“We are here because, even though it’s Christmas, unfortunately police brutality and implicit bias don’t even take a break for Christmas ,” said Benjamin Crump, who, along with two local attorneys, is representing Hill’s family, whom he said “were expecting Big Daddy to bust through the door on Christmas morning, like he had always done.”
Crump said he plans to file a civil rights lawsuit against the city. Hewants all the evidence, including number of shots fired, dashcam video and conversations Coy had with other officers.
Crumpsaid that Hill’s familyhad heardextended video in which Coy asks a colleague: “I need to figure out what the (expletive) am I going to say,” to which the other officer replies: “I got you.”
That statement is not shown in the video released by police after the shooting. Columbus Public Safety spokesman GlennMcEntyre said there is no other police version of the exchange.
On Wednesday, Mayor Andrew J. Ginther called for Coy’s firing, which requires a hearing and eventual ruling by Public Safety Director Ned Pettus.
Ginther has said that Coy and other officers’ inaction violated the police division’s core values that include compassion, respect and accountability.
City Council President Shannon Hardin and Councilwoman Shayla Favor both have called for Coy’s arrest and criminal charges against him. Several in Saturday’s crowd called for the same.
Among the last to speak at the news conference and candle-light vigilwasKarissa Hill, 27, Hill’s daughter, who was wearing her father’s BLM hat.
“Hewasmy protector. He wasmy provider,” she said, as the crowd encouraged her with shouts of ‘We’re here for you!” and “Take your time.”
Hill questioned how“people that we trust, or that we’re supposed to trust, are the ones who killed my father.”
She said that her 6-yearold son, who lived near the rec center with Andre’ and Karissa, is struggling to understand what happened after he had heard news accounts of his grandfather on the garage floor.
“He said, ‘Mommy. I pray toGod, why can’t Big Daddy get off the floor?’ It was just so heart-breaking because he loved my kids so much.
“And I had to explain to him why Big Daddy wasn’t coming home,” Karissa Hill said.
Bishop Harold Rayford, pastor of the Church of Christ of the Apostle Faith, next door to the center, said the erosion of trust is alarming but justified.
“It’s a reflection of a society that does not embrace Godley values,” he said.
As for the police division’s role, Rayford said, “This is not a training matter. This is a 19-year veteranwho was trigger happy, as I understand it.”