CCTV footage of the police body released Thursday shows Columbus, Ohio, officers handcuffing a seemingly lifeless black man after shooting him multiple times and then standing there for five minutes and eleven seconds without providing first aid.
Andre Hill, 47, had a cell phone in his left hand but no guns when he came out of a friend’s garage on December 22 and was shot and killed.
After the shooting, a woman came out of the house and said to the police, “He brought me Christmas money. He did nothing,” according to the camera video of the body. Police ordered her to go back to the residence without asking her questions, the footage shows.
Ben Crump, the Hill family’s attorney, said a now-fired officer opened fire without first verbally ordering Hill to stop and raise his hands. Crump said Hill was shot four times.
“It’s really hard to stand here and keep my cool because I’m completely outraged at the way they treated my brother,” said Hill’s eldest sister, Shawna Barnett, at a press conference following the release of the body camera videos. . no sense. They showed no humanity towards him. How do you sleep at night knowing you did this and left him there and had the guts to turn him over and handcuff him but not to help. Nothing.”
Hill’s family called on prosecutors to criminalize former Columbus district attorney Adam Coy of Hill’s death.
Hill’s daughter, Karissa Hill, 27, who lived with her father with her three young children, said in a trembling voice that she will have to remember ‘how no one helped him’ for the rest of her life.
“How there are 22 officers on the scene with camera images of the body and not one of them helped my father. But instead, the first time they touch him is handcuffed,” she said.
Crump said police showed the video to family members on Thursday morning, along with him and other lawyers working on the case, and said the footage confirmed Andre Hill’s “unnecessary, unwarranted and pointless shooting.”
Where’s humanity for Andre Hill? Where’s humanity for this Columbus citizen who had committed no crime, had no weapon, was unarmed, just holding a cell phone? Where’s humanity for this citizen, for this father, this one? grandfather, this brother? ”said Crump. “You wonder if they tried to save his life instead of handcuffing him, would Andre Hill be with us today?”
Hill was fatally shot after Coy and another officer, Amy Detweiler, responded to a non-emergency sound complaint.
The camera video of the body was released a day after police released an “informational summary” of the interview investigators who had been with Detweiler. In the interview, Detweiler said she heard Coy scream that Hill had a gun in his hand. She couldn’t remember if Coy had ordered Hill to drop a weapon.
Detweiler said she did not see a gun in Hill’s hand and she saw no threats from Hill during the incident.
Coy only turned on his body camera after firing at Hill. But his camera was automatically activated and recorded 60 seconds of the episode without sound.
Crump said that after Coy shot Hill, he and Detweiler were next to him for five minutes and eleven seconds.
“He’s lying on the ground to breathe, and none of the police officers have given him medical attention,” Crump said.
He said that despite Hill lying motionless on the ground, a police supervisor told officers to handcuff him. Crump said the agents then left Hill in handcuffs for 13 minutes without providing any first aid.
“You see in the video, they shackle a dying man, who was unarmed, who they shot multiple times for a non-emergency call,” Crump said. ‘What is his crime? Why do they care about him? ‘
Michelle Hariston, another of Hill’s sister, added that after watching the camera videos of the body, she felt that police officers were treating her brother “ like an animal. ”
“He was attacked and not given a chance,” said Hariston. “We are completely outraged at what happened.”
Columbus Police Chief Thomas Quinlan released a video statement on Thursday saying his initial reaction to seeing the videos was “anger and deep disappointment.”
“I know it’s horrible to anyone who watches it,” said Quinlan. One of the core values of the Columbus Division of Police is compassion. And the body-worn camera video released today demonstrates little of that. Let me repeat what I said last week: Andre Hill should be alive today. A police officer Columbus is responsible for his death. I can’t defend it. I can’t make it up to you. “
Quinlan added that Coy’s violations of police policy and standards were “so clear and so blatant that his resignation could not wait.”
He said Coy is facing an independent criminal investigation by the state and the United States Department of Justice.
Columbus mayor Andrew J. Ginther also issued a statement condemning what he saw in the camera images of the body.
“Like most who have seen the extra body-worn camera footage from Andre Hill’s shooting and beyond, I am shocked by the time passed before an officer offered assistance to Mr. Hill,” said Ginther. trained to provide potentially life-saving care, and at least comfort in these situations. One of the core values of the Police Department is compassion. None of this was clear in the video released today. “
Ginther said he has instructed Quinlan to “fully and thoroughly investigate the incident, and hold to account all officers who have not adhered to the division’s standards.”
But Michael Wright, another attorney representing Hill’s family, claimed that police had had numerous opportunities to terminate Coy in the past, adding that an investigation by his office reportedly found 90 complaints against Coy dating back to 2001. He said 16 of the complaints were substantiated.
“That means some action should have been taken,” Wright said.
The attorney has not detailed where the reported complaints about Coy came from, and police have yet to comment on the former officer’s file.
Wright showed reporters an enlarged copy of a report Quinlan wrote about Coy when he was his patrol lieutenant in 2008.
“In a letter I wrote in 2008 when Officer Coy’s patrol lieutenant, I made the following comment about, if sustainable improvements are not fully realized, a decision should follow as to whether Officer Coy is salvageable,” Quinlan wrote, according to the document Wright to reporters. “Should the interventions outlined above fail to produce the desired results, a shift to termination would be warranted, as Officer Coy’s service to the Police Department will have lost all future value.”
“This didn’t have to happen,” said Wright. “If the Columbus police had done their job and terminated Adam Coy before this happened, we wouldn’t be here today.”
Andy Fies of ABC News contributed to this report.