COLUMBUS, Dec 25, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – The fatal shooting of an unarmed Black
man by police in Columbus, Ohio — the US city’s second such killing this
month — sparked a fresh wave of protests on Thursday against racial
injustice and police brutality in the country.
Andre Maurice Hill, 47, was in the garage of a house on Monday night when
he was shot several times by a police officer who had been called to the
scene for a minor incident.
Seconds before the gunfire, bodycam footage shows Hill walking towards the
policeman holding a cell phone in his left hand, while his other hand cannot
be seen.
Columbus police chief Thomas Quinlan announced Thursday that he was moving
to fire the officer, Adam Coy, on allegations of “critical misconduct”.
“We have an officer who violated his oath to comply with the rules and
policies of the Columbus Division of Police,” Quinlan said in a statement.
“This violation cost an innocent man his life.”
According to local media reports, Coy had previously received complaints of
excessive force.
Coy and his colleague waited several minutes before approaching Hill, who
was still alive, but died later.
Hill, the second African-American killed by police in Columbus in less than
three weeks, was not carrying a weapon.
Casey Goodson Jr, 23, was shot several times on December 4 while returning
home. His family has said he was holding a sandwich which law enforcement
mistook for a gun.
Several dozen protestors gathered Thursday, waving Black Lives Matter signs
and calling for justice for people killed in police shootings.
The killings in Columbus come after a summer in which the US was rocked by
historic protests against racial injustice and police brutality, sparked by
the May killing of African-American man George Floyd.
Floyd, also unarmed, suffocated beneath the knee of a white police officer
in Minneapolis. Horrified passers-by filmed his death, with the footage
swiftly going viral.
“Once again officers see a Black man and conclude that he’s criminal and
dangerous,” said lawyer Ben Crump, who defends several families of police
brutality victims including Floyd’s, on Wednesday.
He denounced a “tragic succession of officer-involved shootings.”
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther said he was “outraged” by Hill’s death.
He was “known to the residents of the home where his car was parked on the
street,” he said Wednesday at a press conference, describing him as a
“guest… not an intruder.”
Ginther said he was “very disturbed” that the two police officers did not
give first aid to Hill and called for Coy’s “immediate termination.”