'I thought I was going to die': Former Ohio police officer Adam Coy testifies in Andre Hill murder case
Former police officer Adam Coy took the witness stand at his murder trial Monday and told a jury that he believed Andre Hill was about to shoot him with a silver revolver when he opened fire on the 47-year-old unarmed Black man in the dark garage of a Columbus, Ohio, home.
"I thought I was going to die," an emotional Coy, a former member of the Columbus Division of Police, testified about the fatal encounter with Hill on Dec. 22, 2020.
After firing four shots and approaching Hill, who lay bleeding to death on the floor of the garage, Coy said he searched for the gun he thought Hill was wielding only to find a large set of keys, an illuminated cell phone and a pack of cigarettes near his body.
"I got up to a point where I was standing next to Mr. Hill and I rolled him back," Coy testified. "I start to look for where the gun was and I seen a pile of keys there and I said, 'F---.' I knew at that point I made a mistake."
The 47-year-old Coy took the witness stand Monday after the prosecution rested its case. Franklin County prosecutors called just six witnesses over three days and showed the jury seated in Franklin County Court of Common Pleas police body-camera video that captured Coy shooting Hill, who was emerging from a friend's garage holding a cell phone.
Prosecutors are expected to put on a rebuttal case, calling an expert witness in police training, once the defense rests.
Coy, who is white, is facing charges of murder, felonious assault and reckless homicide. He has pleaded not guilty.
If convicted, Coy faces a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
‘Something's not adding up here'
Under questioning from his defense attorney Mark Collins, Coy said he responded to a non-emergency complaint of a suspicious vehicle parked in the street at 1:30 a.m. with its engine turning on and off.
Coy testified that when he got to the scene, he approached the vehicle the 911 caller directed him to.
Coy said that as he approached the car, the driver, who turned out to be Hill, rolled down the window and held out a cell phone.
"The driver says that 'I'm waiting for someone to come out. They're going to be out in a second,'" Coy testified.
Coy said he wished Hill a "good evening" and went back to his patrol car and waited for the person to come out and meet Hill.
"He seemed wide-eyed, a little jittery and dismissive of me," Coy said of Hill. "He wanted to break contact with me as soon as he could."
Coy testified that after a few minutes, Hill got out of his car and went up to the front porch of a house and banged on the door, but got no answer.
He said Hill then walked back to his vehicle and rummaged through the front seat before going back to the house and knocking on the door again.
Coy said he asked Hill, "What's going on?" But Hill ignored him.
He said Hill kept looking back over his shoulder at him the second time he went to the front door of the house and knocked, again getting no answer.
“It makes you start to think, 'What is this person’s intention?'" Coy testified. "With the totality of everything that’s going on at this point, I’m starting to gather more reasonable suspicion there is a crime going on and he’s not being truthful with me."
He testified that by the time his colleague, Officer Amy Detweiler, arrived at the scene, he had lost track of Hill and that the two officers decided to walk up the driveway of the house to determine Hill's whereabouts.
Coy testified that he did not have his gun drawn as he and Detweiler walked up the driveway.
He said he shined his flashlight into a dark open garage looking for Hill.
"Approximately at this time I see a light flicker at the back of the garage. Maybe two or three steps up the driveway, I see a flicker low to the ground in the back corner of the garage," Coy testified.
When he pointed his flashlight toward the flickering light, he testified, "Mr. Hill is crouched down in the back righthand corner of the garage."
“I shine my flashlight on him and I say, ‘Something's not adding up here. Come out here, show yourself,'" Coy testified.
'It was the worst night of my life'
Coy said Hill walked toward him holding up in his left hand his illuminated cell phone. But Coy testified that Hill was walking next to a car parked in the garage and that he couldn't see the man's right side.
Coy claimed that Hill was "blading," or had taken a "stance like a boxer would take if they're going to get into a fight." He said he believed that Hill was holding up his cell phone as "a distraction."
He said he could finally see Hill's right side when Hill reached the rear of the car parked in the garage.
"When he turns toward you, what do you see?" Collins asked.
Coy responded, "A silver revolver in his right hand." Coy said it appeared that Hill was raising the gun up from behind his leg and "it was coming up at me."
"I drew my gun," Coy said. "I yelled, 'Gun! Gun!' and I fired four shots."
Collins asked, "Why did you fire four shots?"
Coy answered, "That's what stopped it."
Coy testified that when he realized he was mistaken about what was in Hill's right hand, he felt, "horrified."
"It was the worst night of my life," Coy testified. "I went in shock. I started dry heaving. I couldn't control myself. I couldn't think straight. Everything just went as a blur to me."
Coy ended his direct testimony, saying, "I saw an imminent threat and I didn't want to get shot right before Christmas."
The trial is expected to continue on Tuesday.
