Police can be ‘mistaken,’ defense says at start of murder trial of Ohio ex-officer who shot unarmed Andre Hill

(CNN) — Defense attorneys for a former Ohio police officer who fatally shot unarmed Black man Andre Hill told jurors in opening statements of his murder trial Thursday he was justified because he thought Hill had a gun and the officer feared for his life.

Prosecutors, however, said Adam Coy’s December 2020 decision to shoot Hill – who they say held a cell phone, not a gun, as he emerged from an acquaintance’s garage in Columbus – was unreasonable and reckless, in part because Hill was complying with Coy’s commands.

“At the end of this case, the state of Ohio will ask you to find that Officer Coy’s use of force was not reasonable; that Andre Hill followed the commands of Officer Coy; that Andre Hill was not a threat,” Franklin County assistant prosecutor Renee Amlin told jurors in a Columbus courtroom Thursday.

Coy was fired from the Columbus Division of Police after fatally shooting Hill, 47, in the early morning of December 22, 2020, authorities said. The shooting sparked outrage in the Ohio community.

Police had been called to the area because a neighbor asked them to investigate someone – Hill – who’d been waiting in a vehicle in the dark of night, prosecutors said. Hill actually was waiting on the acquaintance – a resident of that neighborhood – who’d asked to meet him, according to prosecutors.

A grand jury indicted Coy in 2021, and he was charged with murder in the commission of a felony, felonious assault and reckless homicide. Coy has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The shooting happened after Coy ordered Hill, who eventually walked from his vehicle to his acquaintance’s garage, to come out, Amlin said during Thursday’s opening statements. Hill, holding an illuminated cell phone in his left hand, approached Coy, body camera footage shows.

Coy yelled, “Gun!” before fatally shooting Hill, but “evidence will show that … Hill was not armed” and no firearm was found at the scene, Amlin said Thursday.

An attorney defending Coy, however, said Coy mistakenly believed Hill was armed with a gun. Coy saw a glint of steel and believed he was going to get shot, defense attorney Kaitlyn Stephens said. The glint of steel turned out to be a mass of metal keys, she said.

Despite this error, police officers “are allowed to be mistaken,” Stephens said. “Even though there was no weapon found, his action to respond with deadly force was consistent with national police procedures.”

Coy “was justified when he made the decision to use deadly force because … he had a subjective belief that he was in immediate fear of great bodily harm or death,” Stephens said.

“The evidence will show that Adam Coy did what he was trained to do on December 22, 2022 – not shoot with heedless indifference, but trained to shoot to stop the threat,” Stephens said.

The city of Columbus agreed in May 2021 to pay a $10 million settlement to Hill’s family, marking the highest amount the city has ever agreed to pay in such a case.

The trial, which began Monday with jury selection in Franklin County, had been postponed indefinitely in April 2023 while Coy underwent cancer treatment, the Columbus Dispatch reported.

Shooting captured on body camera footage

Coy went to a Columbus neighborhood in the early morning of December 22, 2020, after a resident asked police to investigate someone who was sitting in SUV near that resident’s home “periodically turning the vehicle on and off,” Amlin told jurors Thursday.

The person in the SUV was Hill, who was intermittently turning the vehicle’s engine on to stay warm while he waited for his acquaintance, who lived in a home on that street, Amlin said.

After arriving in the neighborhood, Coy had a brief conversation with Hill while Hill remained in the SUV, and Hill said he was waiting for someone, Amlin said. Coy said that was fine, and returned to his cruiser to wait for Hill to leave, the assistant prosecutor said.

Around then, a second officer, Amy Detweiler, arrived and spoke to Coy, and the two decided they should approach Hill, who had just entered the garage of the acquaintance he was waiting on, Amlin said.

Coy walked toward the garage and ordered Hill to come out, Amlin said. Hill began to comply, moving along a white car that was parked in that garage, Amlin said.

The body camera footage recorded with the look-back feature shows Hill walking from an opened garage toward Coy with his left hand holding an illuminated phone. His right hand is not visible.

Coy then appears to back up quickly, with his left hand holding a flashlight and his right hand holding a pointed firearm, the body camera footage shows.

After Coy turns on his camera, he can be heard panting and shouting commands at Hill, who is seen in distress on the ground near a parked car in the garage.

Body camera footage from Detweiler, who was at the scene during the shooting, shows Hill lying on the garage’s floor while in handcuffs.

An unidentified woman is seen coming out of the house and telling police, “He was bringing me Christmas money! He didn’t do anything.”

Detweiler said she heard Coy saying that he saw a gun and that Coy yelled, “There’s a gun in his other hand, there’s a gun in his other hand!” according to a report prepared by the Columbus police chief.

Hill died later that morning at a hospital. No weapon was found at the scene.

Attorney Benjamin Crump, representing Hill’s family, said Hill was visiting a family friend at the time of the shooting and was left “struggling for life for five minutes and 11 seconds.”

Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther said after the shooting in 2020 he was “horrified by the time that passed before any officer provided aid” to Hill.

“Our officers are trained to provide potentially life-saving care, and at the very least, comfort in these situations,” Ginther said.

In February 2021, Hill’s family expressed gratitude for the grand jury’s indictment but added they want Coy to be convicted on all charges.

“We don’t want (Coy) to be charged and let go, as has been the past cases that we’ve seen – many times,” said Shawna Barnett, Hill’s sister. “We want him incarcerated.”

Hill’s death came three weeks after a legally armed Black man, Casey Goodson Jr., was shot and killed in Columbus by a Franklin County sheriff’s deputy.

Both deadly shootings followed the outcry and protests earlier that year sparked by the death of George Floyd, as a Minneapolis police officer pinned him to the ground for several minutes in May 2020.

CNN’s Laurie Ure, Jennifer Henderson, Sonia Moghe, Holly Yan, Melissa Alonso, Peter Nickeas, Madeline Holcombe, Amir Vera, Rebekah Riess, Ray Sanchez, Steve Forrest, Kristina Sgueglia and Taylor Romine contributed to this report.

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