COLUMBUS, Ohio — Embattled Columbus police officer Adam Coy, who fatally shot 47-year-old Black resident Andre Maurice Hill last Tuesday, did not attend a disciplinary hearing Monday morning that will ultimately determine termination.
The hearing follows a call from Mayor Andrew Ginther last week for Coy’s “immediate termination,” and Columbus Division of Police Chief Thomas Quinlan agreed that is appropriate disciplinary action for Coy following the fatal shooting.
Members of the Fraternal Order of Police attended Monday’s hearing on behalf of Coy, according to a statement from the Columbus Department of Public Safety.
Vice President of the Fraternal Order of Police Brian Steel spoke to reporters outside the Department of Public Safety building at about 10:30 a.m Monday after the brief hearing concluded.
“The Fraternal Order of Police is there to give any rebuttal evidence and counter evidence, but in this case, without Officer Coy, we did not,” Steel said. “Officer Coy was given the opportunity today to come and participate. He elected not to participate. I do not know why… I would have liked to have him here, but it's his decision.”
Steel said during the hearing a lieutenant from the department’s grievance discipline office read the charges against Coy, which included a charge of inappropriate use of force and a charge of a “cause for dismissal,” he said.
According to the Department of Public Safety, Director Ned Pettus Jr. “will now review all evidence and documentation submitted and render a prompt decision regarding Officer Coy’s employment.”
“We make our determinations on facts and data, not emotion, so we have to wait till the facts come out. I know that's frustrating,” Steel said.
Steel said he expects the director to make his decision within a day or two. He said the FOP will convene its attorneys and decide upon next steps.
Not "his" garage since he was visiting -- On Dec. 22, Hill walked out of a garage he was visiting with a cellphone in his hand as Coy approached and fatally shot Hill. Coy and a second officer were responding to a non-emergency call from a neighbor of a person turning their car on and off in the middle of the night.
Coy’s body-camera captured the officer fatally shooting Hill, but because the officer did not promptly activate his camera there is no audio of what either man said, police confirm. Quinlan said last week Coy failed to promptly turn on his body camera and failed to administer first aid to Hill.
Asked for his message to Hill’s family, Steel on Monday said he was “horrified” by the video of the shooting. He said he is sorry for their loss.
“We're human beings. We watch a video of a man dying. That hurts, that hurts us all. So we're not that callous that we would say that's no big deal,” he said. “It was horrible what I saw. It was tragic. You watched a man die, and it was terrible. But now we're going to put on our professional hats and have trust in the process and let the process play through. And at the end of the day, we'll find out exactly what happened.”
At a press conference Saturday night, national civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents Hill's family, demanded police release the dispatch call that was assigned to Coy, and he called for an independent autopsy to learn how many times Hill was shot.
“It wasn’t even a 911 call,” Crump said. “It was a non-emergency call about a noise complaint. So why would officers get out drawing weapons over a noise complaint?”
Brian Steel, vice president of the FOP: "Officer Coy was given the opportunity to come and participate. He elected not to participate... I would have liked him here, but it's his decision." @SpectrumNews1OH pic.twitter.com/BZJKRs8tIx
— Pete Grieve (@pete_grieve) December 28, 2020
This is the second fatal shooting of an unarmed Black man in Columbus in December.