Adam Coy, the 19-year veteran Columbus, Ohio, cop who shot and killed Andre Maurice Hill in December, was arrested and arraigned on charges of felony murder Feb. 3.
The night of the Dec. 22 killing Coy and another cop were in the area investigating an unrelated call. Hill was on the same street in the garage of the house where he was visiting. When he saw the police walking up the driveway, Hill held his brightly illuminated cellphone up in the air and started walking out of the garage. All this is clearly seen on the cop’s body camera recording. But within seconds Coy shot him, claiming later he thought the cellphone was a gun.
Several other cops arrived as Hill, a 47-year-old African American chef and construction worker, lay dying on the garage floor. But 10 minutes went by without any of them providing medical assistance. Instead, cops rolled Hill’s body over to handcuff him, hands behind his back.
“Those pictures that I got to look at, I got to memorize my dad on the floor for the rest of my life and how nobody helped him,” Karissa Hill told the media after her father’s death. “There’s 22 officers on the scene and not one of them helped my dad.”
Family presses for justice
“His family is not backing down. And we are going to make sure all four convictions happen,” Karissa Hill said the day after Coy was indicted.
In addition to murder, Coy is charged with two counts of dereliction of duty and one count of felonious assault. The four charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.
“We don’t want [Coy] to be charged and let go, as has been the past cases we’ve seen,” Shawna Barnett, Hill’s sister, told the press. “We want him incarcerated.”
“I am just wishing that everybody — Black and white citizens — bring this tragedy home with you,” Hill’s brother, Alvin Williams, said. “This is a people issue, and it takes all of us to actually dissect the problems. There’s always a discrepancy when it comes to Black lives.”
The cold-blooded killing has turned a public spotlight on the Columbus cops. Coy was fired six days after the shooting. It’s come to light that some 90 “citizen complaints” had been filed against him since 2001. Columbus Chief of Police Thomas Quinlan was demoted to deputy chief Jan. 28.
Coy pled not guilty to murdering Hill. He was released from detention Feb. 9 after posting bail and his bond had been lowered to $1 million.
Joining a protest outside Coy’s arraignment alongside Hill’s family was Tamala Payne, the mother of Casey Goodson Jr. He was shot and killed in Columbus Dec. 4 by Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Meade. Meade is under investigation, but has not been charged.
Goodson, a 23-year-old African American laid-off truck driver, was gunned down by the deputy on the steps of his family’s home and died in front of his grandmother and 5-year-old brother.
“We have suffered through the holidays with our loved ones being murdered senselessly,” Payne said. “I think each one of the cowards should sit and be haunted with the murders of Casey and Andre for the rest of their lives.”
About 150 family members, neighbors and supporters of Goodson held a rally in Goodale Park Jan. 30, on what would have been his 24th birthday.