COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio police officer was fired Monday after bodycam footage showed him fatally shooting 47-year-old Andre Hill, a Black man holding a cellphone, and refusing to administer first aid for several minutes.
Columbus Officer Adam Coy was fired hours after a hearing was held to determine his employment, Brian Steel, the vice president of the local police union, told The Associated Press. Coy is also under criminal investigation for last week’s shooting.
Columbus Safety Director Ned Pettus Jr. concluded the hearing to determine whether the actions taken by Coy in the moments before and after the fatal shooting were justified.
Members of the police union representing Columbus officers attended the hearing on behalf of Coy, who was not in attendance, according to a statement from Pettus’ office.
The hearing comes after Police Chief Thomas Quinlan made a video statement Christmas Eve, saying he had seen enough to recommend Coy be terminated.
Quinlan expedited the investigation and bypassed procedure to file two departmental charges alleging critical misconduct against Coy in the death of Hill.
“We have an officer who violated his oath to comply with the rules and policies of the Columbus Division of Police,” he said. “And the consequences of that violation are so great, it requires immediate action. This violation cost an innocent man his life.”
Coy and another officer responded to a neighbor’s nonemergency call after 1 a.m. Tuesday about a car in front of his house on the city’s northwest side that had been running, then shut off, then turned back on, according to a copy of the call released Wednesday.
Mayor Andrew Ginther said it remains unclear if that car had anything to do with Hill.
Police bodycam footage showed Hill emerging from a garage and holding up a cellphone in his left hand seconds before he was fatally shot by Coy. There is no audio because the officer hadn’t activated the body camera; an automatic “look back” feature captured the shooting without audio.
An investigation is also being conducted into the other officers who responded to the call that ended in Hill being shot, who Quinlan said also appear to have either failed to activate their body cameras or to render Hill aid. He said any others who violated department protocols will be held accountable.
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. 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.
In addition to an internal police investigation, Attorney General Dave Yost was appointed a special prosecutor in the death of Hill on Thursday.
“We will do our duty based on the facts and the law,” Yost said in a tweet. “Whatever the outcome, someone will be angry — but the decision will be objective.”
There is also an investigation under the state’s criminal investigations unit, under Yost, with assistance from the U.S. attorney’s office and the FBI’s Civil Rights Division.
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