A former Ohio police officer convicted in the shooting death of Andre Hill, a Black man who was holding a cellphone and keys when he was killed, was given a mandatory sentence of 15 years to life on Monday.
Former Columbus police officer Adam Coy shot Hill four times in a garage in December 2020 as the country reckoned with a series of police killings of Black men, women and children. He told jurors that he feared for his life because he thought Hill was holding a silver revolver.
“I knew at that point I made a mistake,” Coy told jurors in October 2024. “I was horrified. It was the worst night of my life.”
He was found guilty of murder in November.
On Monday, Coy, who is undergoing cancer treatments for Hodgkin lymphoma, told the court that he plans to appeal the verdict.
“I feel my actions were justified,” Coy said. “I reacted the same way I had in hundreds of training scenarios. I drew and fired my weapon to stop a threat, protect myself and my partner.”
Prosecutors said Hill followed police commands and was never a threat to Coy.
In victim impact statements on Monday, Hill’s sisters and ex-wife described the 47-year-old as a gentle man who had never known a stranger. His grandchildren called him “Big Daddy.”
Police body camera footage showed Hill coming out of the garage of a friend’s house holding up a cellphone in his left hand, his right hand not visible, seconds before he was fatally shot. Almost 10 minutes passed before officers at the scene rendered aid.
“To watch my brother die, I mean, out there with no medical help, period, no kind of sympathy or empathy for him at all, and then to watch him get turned over and handcuffed is unbelievable,” Hill’s sister, Shawna Barnett, told “CBS Mornings” in a 2021 interview.
Coy, who served 20 years with the Columbus Police Department and was fired after the shooting, had a lengthy history of citizen complaints, although most were declared unfounded. Weeks later, the mayor forced out the police chief after a series of fatal police shootings of Black people.
Columbus later reached a $10 million settlement with Hill’s family, and the city passed a law requiring police to give immediate medical attention to injured suspects.
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