COLUMBUS – The fatal shooting of an unarmed black man by police here – the US city’s second such killing this month – sparked a fresh wave of protests yesterday against racial injustice and cop 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 an officer, who had been called to the scene for a minor incident.
Seconds before the gunfire, body-cam footage showed 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 yesterday that he is 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 Columbus police,” he said in a statement.
“This violation cost an innocent man his life.”
According to local reports, Coy 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 here 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 have said he was holding a sandwich, which law enforcement mistook for a gun.
Several dozen protesters gathered yesterday, waving Black Lives Matter signs and calling for justice for people killed in police shootings.
The killings here come after a summer in which the US was rocked by historic protests against racial injustice and police brutality, sparked by the May murder 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 is “outraged” by Hill’s death.
He was “known to the residents of the home, where his car was parked on the street”, Ginther told a press conference on Wednesday, describing Hill as a “guest... not an intruder”.
Ginther said he is “very disturbed” that the two police officers did not give first aid to Hill, and called for Coy’s “immediate termination”. – AFP, December 25, 2020
