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- Ohio Police Chief Thomas Quinlan announced misconduct charges against Officer Adam Coy in the death of Andre Hill.
- Coy shot and killed Hill, an unarmed black man.
- Quinlan described it as an act of “senseless violence.”
The Columbus, Ohio police chief said Thursday that he concluded that an officer who shot and killed an unarmed black man earlier this week engaged in an act of “senseless violence” that should cost him his job. immediately.
Chief Thomas Quinlan announced his recommendation that the city fire the police officer in a grim videotaped statement posted online two days after Andre Maurice Hill, 47, was shot and killed in the garage of a home where he was staying as a guest.
READ | The police murder of an unarmed black man provokes a new outrage in the US.
Quinlan said he brought two departmental charges of “critical misconduct” against the officer, Adam Coy, stemming from an expedited internal investigation into what the chief called Coy’s “unreasonable use of deadly force” and “failure to assist” Hill afterward. of what was Shot.
The city’s director of public safety will hold a hearing Monday to rule on the police chief’s recommendation that Coy, a 19-year veteran of the force who has already been relieved of his duties, be fired, Quinlan said.
Quinlan called the fatal shooting an act of “preventable violence, senseless violence.”
“This didn’t have to happen, and it never should have happened,” he said. “Andre Hill should be with his family this vacation.”
Camera images on the body
Hill’s murder marked the second time in a month that an African American man was killed by police under questionable circumstances in the Ohio capital.
Casey Christopher Goodson, 23, was shot and killed outside his home Dec. 4 by a Franklin County deputy sheriff assigned to a team of U.S. Marshals searching for a fugitive in the Goodson neighborhood.
The latest incident unfolded in the early hours of Tuesday after police responded to a non-emergency report of a man turning a car on and off for an extended period, Columbus police said in a statement.
Coy body camera footage showed Hill emerging from the shadows of the garage holding a shiny cell phone in one hand before the officer opened fire on him. Hill died a short time later in a hospital.
Although neither Coy, who is white, nor a second officer on the scene activated their body cameras until just after the shots were fired, the moments just before and including the shooting were captured on soundless video due to an automatic 60-foot gaze. seconds “.” back “function.
Once the audio is turned on, Coy is heard yelling at Hill to make his hands visible and roll onto his stomach as Hill lies groaning on the ground next to the car.
Reuters could not determine whether Coy has hired legal representation.
In his statement, Quinlan insisted that his determination was not a rush to judge. “I’ve seen everything I need to see,” the police chief said.
Quinlan said state authorities were handling a separate criminal investigation into the shooting and that prosecutors would determine whether charges will be pressed. Other officers involved also remain under review, he said.
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