Defense attorneys for a former Ohio police officer who fatally shot unarmed Black man Andre Hill told jurors in opening statements of his murder trial Thursday he was justified because he thought Hill had a gun and the officer feared for his life.
Prosecutors, however, said Adam Coy’s December 2020 decision to shoot Hill – who they say held a cell phone, not a gun, as he emerged from an acquaintance’s garage in Columbus – was unreasonable and reckless, in part because Hill was complying with Coy’s commands.
“At the end of this case, the state of Ohio will ask you to find that Officer Coy’s use of force was not reasonable; that Andre Hill followed the commands of Officer Coy; that Andre Hill was not a threat,” Franklin County assistant prosecutor Renee Amlin told jurors in a Columbus courtroom Thursday.
