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Body camera footage of an official, circulating Thursday, showed him killing 47-year-old Andre Maurice Hill with multiple shots in the garage of a home in Columbus, Ohio. Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther was “outraged” by the incident.
An African American man had been shot and killed by police in the city three weeks earlier. Once again, police officers saw a black man and concluded “that he is a criminal and dangerous,” attorney Ben Crump, who represents several families of victims of police violence, said of Hill’s death.
The footage shows Hill approaching the police officer Monday night. He has a cell phone in his left hand, his right hand is not seen. Seconds later, the officer fires and Hill collapses. The police officer had been called to the scene for a minor incident. According to media reports, it was about a man who was sitting in a car and was repeatedly turning it on and off.
It is not clear why the police officer fired. The video has no sound. Hill didn’t carry a gun. According to local media, complaints about the disproportionate use of force against the police officer are said to have been received.
In early December, 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr. was shot and killed by a police officer in Columbus as he was returning home. According to his family, he was holding a sandwich that the officer believed was a firearm.
Last year there were months of nationwide protests against excessive violence and racism in the United States. The demonstrations were sparked by the death of unarmed African-American George Floyd during a police operation in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in late May. Apart from the mostly peaceful protests, there were repeated riots.
