Video released in shooting of Black man holding phone
Body camera footage released Wednesday shows Andre Hill, a 47-year- old Black man, emerging from a garage and holding up a cellphone in his left hand seconds before he is fatally shot by a Columbus police officer.
About six seconds pass between the time Hill is visible in the video and when the officer fires his weapon early Tuesday. There is no audio because the officer hadn’t activated the body camera; an automatic “look back” feature captured the shooting without audio.
Without audio, it’s unclear whether the officer, identified as Adam Coy, yelled any commands at Hill, whose right hand isn’t visible in the video. Authorities say no weapon was recovered from the scene. The city says Hill was visiting someone at the time.
Policy violations
Hill lay on the garage floor for several minutes without any officer on the scene coming to his aid. That violates policy requiring officers to help the injured, said Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther on Wednesday, calling for Coy to be fired as a result.
Coy also violated departmental policies requiring
his camera’s full video and audio functions to have been activated, Ginther said.
Columbus police values, including integrity, compassion and accountability, “were absent and not on display while Mr. Hill lay dying,” said Ginther, a Democrat.
After Coy activates the audio, he is heard using an expletive as he yells at Hill, now lying on the garage floor, to put his “hands off to the side! Hands out to the side now!”
A few seconds later, Coy yells at Hill, “Roll to your stomach now,” and then: “Get your hand up from underneath you, now!”
Coy then asks a dispatcher, “We got a medic coming” and yells, “Don’t move, dude!” to Hill as he lies on his side groaning.
Hill died less than an hour later at a hospital.
Body camera criticism
Ginther and Police Chief Thomas Quinlan have expressed anger that Coy did not activate his body camera beforehand. The 60-second look-back feature captured the shooting.
Officers must activate their body cameras as soon as they are dispatched to a major incident such as a shooting, robbery or burglary, under departmental policy.
Beyond that, officers must turn the cameras on “at the start of an enforcement action or at the first reasonable opportunity to do so,” according to the policy.
Although Coy was dispatched on a nonemergency call, the call became an enforcement action when the officer interacted with Hill because that was separate from the original call, said police department spokesperson Sgt. James Fuqua.
“Therefore, the camera by policy should have been activated,” he said.
Coy, a 17-year member of the force, was relieved of duty, ordered to turn in his gun and badge, and stripped of police powers pending the outcome of investigations. By union contract, the officer will still be paid.
Relieving an officer of duty is common in Columbus after a shooting.
“In this case, the chief of police directly observed what he believes to be potential critical misconduct and is taking an intervening action of relief of duty until a disciplinary investigation can be completed,” said Glenn McEntyre, a spokesperson for the city Department of Public Safety, which oversees the police.
Ned Pettus Jr., the city public safety director, on Wednesday promised “a fair, impartial hearing” for Coy.