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Columbus Police Release Body Camera Footage Of Officer Killing Andre Hill
By: Gabe Rosenberg | WOSU
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (WOSU) — Body camera footage shows a Columbus Police officer fatally shooting 47-year-old Andre Maurice Hill less than 10 seconds after finding him in his garage early Tuesday morning.
The footage, released by the department Wednesday, also reveals that almost six minutes passed after Hill’s shooting before an officer attempts to administer first aid.
Police identified Adam Coy, a 19-year veteran of the department, as the officer who shot Hill. Coy was placed on paid administrative leave Tuesday.
Mayor Andrew Ginther was scheduled to hold a press conference at 4 p.m. with Public Safety Director Ned Pettus.
Police say the officers dispatched to the Cranbrook neighborhood around 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday, responding to a non-emergency call about a man sitting inside a car repeatedly turning it on and off.
Footage from Coy’s body camera shows officers walking up to an open garage and shining their flashlights on Hill, who turns around and holds up his cell phone up. His right hand appears to be inside his jacket pocket.
With the light from his cell phone facing towards the officers, Hill takes several steps toward Coy, who quickly draws his gun and shoots Hill.
Because Coy did not activate his camera until after the shooting, there is no audio for the first minute of the footage – Columbus Police body cameras feature a “look back” function that offers video but no sound of the 60 seconds before activation.
Coy asks another officer if medics are coming, walks up to Hill and rolls him over onto his stomach. Coy then paces around the driveway for several minutes. Over six minutes into the video, a medic approaches Hill and begins to administer first aid.
The official Columbus Police report of the shooting, also released Wednesday, is brief and absent of most details: “Officer discharged his firearm upon confronting Mr. Hill. Mr. Hill did not survive his injuries.”
Police also there is no dash cam footage of the incident, either, because officers were responding to a non-emergency call.
“The city works hard to provide police with the tools officers need to protect themselves and the public,” Ginther said at a press conference Tuesday afternoon. “So let me be clear: If you’re not going to turn on your body worn camera, you cannot protect and serve the people of Columbus. I have asked Chief Quinlan to remove the officer from duty and turn in his badge and gun.”
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is leading the case. U.S. Attorney Dave DeVillers said his office will also review if any federal civil rights laws were violated.
“The mayor requested that the U.S. Attorney’s Office review the investigation for possible federal civil rights violations, and after consulting with Ohio Attorney General Yost, I agreed that my office will review the case as requested once BCI’s investigation is complete,” DeVillers said in a statement Wednesday. “This office will then consult with the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office on how to proceed at the conclusion of our review.”
A Month Of Shootings
Hill’s death came just three weeks after a separate law enforcement shooting of a Black man in Columbus, which sparked a federal civil rights investigation of its own.
DeVillers is currently heading a joint criminal-civil rights probe into the December 4 killing of Casey Goodson Jr. by Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Meade, who is white.
“You know, every time we think we have an open window where we can begin to have healing and change in the community and begin to build trust, and now we’re back to ground zero again because of two back-to-back shootings of Black men,” Stephanie Hightower, president of the Columbus Urban League, told WOSU on Wednesday.
Authorities say Meade encountered Goodson while conducting a search for an unrelated suspect in the Northland neighborhood, and went to confront Goodson – who was neither the person officers were looking for, nor the subject of any investigation. Meade then fatally shot Goodson at his home, with a preliminary report from the county coroner finding that Goodson likely died from multiple gunshot wounds to the torso.
Still, there are many uncertainties surrounding Goodson’s shooting, which prompted days of protests in downtown Columbus. Similar to Tuesday’s incident, a lack of recorded evidence presents a challenge – unlike Columbus Police officers, Franklin County Sheriff’s deputies don’t wear body cameras, so there is no audio or video of the encounter between Meade and Goodson.
A lawyer for Meade said that Goodson pointed a gun at the deputy and refused commands to stand down, but that claim cannot be verified due to the absence of recordings or witnesses. Goodson’s family disputes the account given by authorities, including whether Goodson had a gun on him at all, and called for Meade to be fired and charged with murder.
Authorities have yet to announce state or federal charges against Meade, who remains on administrative leave.
Reform In Motion
The two shootings occured during a critical juncture for police reforms in Columbus.
“All of the actions that you have seen this year basically illuminates what Black folks have always been dealing with, and what we have always thought, is that law enforcement, they’re not here to protect and serve our community, they’re here to police us, and we’ve got to change that narrative,” Hightower said.
Starting next month, prosecutions of police misconduct in Columbus will fall to a new person: incoming Franklin County Prosecutor Gary Tyack, a Democrat who ousted longtime Republican Ron O’Brien in November. For decades, O’Brien was a target of criticism from racial justice advocates in Columbus – during his 24-year tenure, no white Columbus Police officer was ever indicted for shooting a civilian.
Over the summer, following weeks of racial justice protests, Ginther issued an executive order requiring all cases of fatal-use-of-force by police to be referred to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation. That agency declined to take up the Goodson shooting, however, because city officials waited three days after the incident to request their involvement.
Columbus voters in November also approved a city charter amendment to create a Civilian Review Board and Inspector General, which will conduct independent investigations into police misconduct and policies. The city is currently accepting applicants for the review board, which it hopes to seat early next year.
Even then, however, the board will be limited in its scope: Neither it nor the Inspector General will have jurisdiction over the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, and significant details about its powers still must be decided with the local police union, whose contract expired this year.
So far, negotiations with the Fraternal Order of Police have proven rocky, with union leaders criticizing Ginther for asking voters to create the Civilian Review Board. In 2017, the FOP unanimously approved a vote of “no confidence” in Ginther, Public Safety Director Ned Pettus and now-City Attorney Zach Klein.