Former police officer Adam Coy was convicted of murder on Monday for the death of Andre Hill, an unarmed Black man, in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas in Columbus, Ohio.
After deliberation, Coy was found guilty of murder, felonious assault and reckless homicide. Coy will receive his sentence on November 25, 2024. Judge Stephen McIntosh can sentence Coy to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 15 years. Andre Hill’s family have also been paid $10 million by the city after a civil lawsuit.
On December 22, 2020, Coy had arrived at Oberlin Drive after receiving a call about someone sitting in a running SUV. Hill was shot four times after he was told to exit his garage. At the time, Hill was holding a cell phone and his keys as he walked towards the officer. Coy testified during the trial that he mistakenly thought Hill was holding a silver revolver and had feared for his life.
Coy’s body camera had not been turned on until Hill had been shot; however, the look-back function, which is automatically activated, revealed 60 seconds of the shooting without sound. Footage shown to the jury also revealed that none of the officers on the scene offered first aid to Hill. Columbus Police Department fired Coy a week after the shooting and a month later, Coy had been arrested. Following Coy’s indictment in February 2021, Columbus City Council passed Andre’s Law, which requires police officers to activate body cameras during action and to request medical aid after force that results in bodily harm.
This Coy’s conviction is said to be the first of its kind where a police officer is being held accountable for a civilian’s death while in the line of duty. Hill’s death happened months after George Floyd’s death, which ignited Black Lives Matter movement and a call for social justice. The president of Columbus NAACP, Nana Watson, agreed with the jury’s decision, asserting that the verdict represents a step towards justice, accountability and the case shows “the importance of implementing policies that value and protect Black lives.”
Advocacy group Mapping Police Violence states that most killings start with disturbances, traffic stops, and in instances where no crime was alleged. From 2013 to 2023, officers were not charged with a crime in 98.1% of such cases. And in 97% of major cities in America, Black people are killed at high rates relative to other demographic groups.
