A police officer in Columbus, Ohio, was fired on Monday for fatally shooting an unarmed black man last week in what the city’s police chief deemed an “unreasonable use of deadly force,” the city’s public safety director said.
The dismissal of Adam Coy, a 19-year veteran of the Columbus police force, followed the recommendation of Chief Thomas Quinlan, who concluded that Andre Maurice Hill, 47, was the victim of an act of “senseless violence” when he was shot and killed last Tuesday.
Hill was fatally shot in the garage of a house where he had been staying as a guest, Reuters reports.
In addition to calling the shooting “an unreasonable use of deadly force,” Quinlan faulted Coy for failing to immediately render medical aid to Hill after he was shot and for not activating his body-worn camera at the outset of the confrontation.
Body camera video of the incident does exist because of the prerecord feature on the Columbus PD's systems.
The shooting came after neighbors placed a non-emergency call to police in the early hours of Dec. 22 to complain that someone was repeatedly turning a car on and off in the middle of the night, authorities said.
