A former Ohio police officer was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison on Monday after being convicted of murdering an unarmed Black man in December 2020.
Andre Hill, 47, was holding a cellphone and keys when Adam Coy, who is white, shot him four times in a Columbus garage.
The ex-cop, who is being treated for Hodgkin lymphoma, told the court during his sentencing hearing Monday he will appeal the verdict.
“I feel my actions were justified,” he 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.”
Hill came out of the garage of a friend’s house holding up a cellphone in his left hand seconds before he was fatally shot, police body camera footage showed. His right hand was not visible.
It took almost 10 minutes for officers to render aid.
Coy said during his trial he thought Hill was holding a silver revolver and feared for his life.
“I thought I was going to die,” he told jurors.
It was only after he rolled over Hill’s body and saw the keys that he realized there was no gun, according to Coy.
“I knew at that point I made a mistake. I was horrified,” he said.
Prosecutors argued Hill followed police orders and was never a threat to Coy.
Hill’s sisters and ex-wife described him Monday as a gentle man who had never known a stranger. His grandchildren called him “Big Daddy.”
“Whether this man gets a life sentence, 15 years, 20 years, will not change the fact or bring him back,” Hill’s daughter Karissa told the sentencing judge, per WBNS.
Coy was fired after the shooting. He 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 in the district.
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.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who had represented the Hill family, reacted to the sentencing on Monday, writing on X: “My heart is with Andre’s family as they face a life without their beloved Andre.”
Hill’s shooting came at a time of heightened scrutiny of police violence against Black Americans.
Black Lives Matter protests, some of which turned violent, erupted across the country in the spring of 2020 when George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died in Minneapolis after a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck. Chauvin was sentenced to 21 years in prison for Floyd’s death.
Another death that fueled outrage was that of Breonna Taylor. The 26-year-old was shot to death by police in her Louisville, Kentucky, apartment during a botched raid in March 2020.
Ex-Louisville police officer Brett Hankison, who was found guilty of violating Taylor’s civil rights after blindly shooting into her apartment, was sentenced to nearly three years in prison earlier this month.
The Justice Department sought a one-day prison sentence, according to a memo seen by The Washington Post. None of Hankison’s bullets hit Taylor.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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