By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A former Ohio police officer was convicted of murder by a jury on Monday for fatally shooting Andre Hill, an unarmed black man.
Adam Coy, a white man and nearly two-decade veteran of the Columbus Police Department, killed Hill, 47, in December 2020 in response to a non-emergency nuisance call about car noise.
The jury in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas case deliberated for about two and a half days.
Footage from Coy’s body-worn camera showed Hill emerging from the shadows of the garage with a glowing cell phone in one hand before Coy opened fire. Hill died a short time later in a hospital.
Throughout 2020, there were nationwide anti-racism protests against police brutality that peaked after the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes.
Coy, who will be sentenced Nov. 25, had told jurors he thought Hill was holding a revolver.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
