‘I thought I was going to die’: ex-Ohio police officer Adam Coy testified at Andre Hill murder trial

Former police officer Adam Coy took the witness stand trial for murder Monday and told jurors 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 a dark garage at a home in Columbus, Ohio.

“I thought I was going to die,” an emotional Coy, a former Columbus Police Department officer, said of the fatal encounter with Hill on Dec. 22, 2020.

After firing four shots and approaching Hill, who was lying bleeding on the garage floor, Coy said he searched for the gun he thought Hill owned, only to find a large set of keys, a cellphone with a light and a pack of cigarettes. near his body.

“I went up to where I was standing next to Mr. Hill and rolled him back,” Coy testified. “I started looking for where the gun was and I saw a bunch of keys there and I was like, ‘F—.’ At that moment, I realized that I had made a mistake.”

Coy, 47, took the witness stand Monday after the prosecution rested its case. Franklin County prosecutors called just six witnesses over three days and showed jurors sitting in Franklin County Circuit Court a police body camera video showing Coy shooting Hill, who was walking out of a friend’s garage while holding a cell phone.

Prosecutors are expected to open their rebuttal case by calling a police-trained expert witness when the defense finishes.

Coy, who is white, is charged with murder, felonious assault and criminally negligent homicide. He pleaded not guilty.

If convicted, Coy faces life in prison without parole.

“Something’s wrong here”

Under questioning from his attorney, Mark Collins, Coy said he responded to a non-emergency complaint about a suspicious vehicle parked on the street at 1:30 a.m. with the engine on and off.

Coy testified that when he arrived at the scene, he approached the vehicle that the 911 caller directed him to.

Coy said that as he approached the vehicle, the driver, identified as Hill, rolled down his window and reached for his cell phone.

“The driver says, ‘I’m waiting for someone to get out.’ They’ll be out in a second,” Coy testified.

Coy said he wished Hill “good evening,” returned to his patrol car and waited for the man to get out and meet Hill.

“He seemed wide-eyed, a little nervous and dismissive of me,” Coy said of Hill. “He wanted to cut contact with me as soon as possible.”

Coy testified that a few minutes later, Hill got out of his car, went up to the front porch of the house and knocked on the door, but got no answer.

He said Hill then went back to his car and rummaged through the front seat, then went back to the house and knocked on the door again.

Coy said he asked Hill, “What’s going on?” But Hill ignored him.

He said Hill continued to look over his shoulder at him when he went to the home’s front door a second time and knocked, again getting no answer.

“It makes you start to think, ‘What is this person’s intention?'” Coy said. “Given everything that’s going on at this point, I’m starting to gather more reasonable suspicions that there’s a crime going on and he’s not being honest with me.”

He testified that when his colleague, Officer Amy Detweiler, arrived on the scene, he lost track of Hill and that two officers decided to walk up the driveway to the house to locate Hill.

Coy testified that he did not have a gun drawn when he and Detweiler walked down the driveway.

He said he shone a flashlight into the open, dark garage looking for Hill.

“About this time I see a flicker in the back of the garage. “Maybe two or three steps up the driveway, I can see a flicker low above the ground in the back corner of the garage,” Coy testified.

As he pointed his flashlight at the flickering light, he testified, “Mr. Hill was crouching in the back right corner of the garage.”

“I’ll shine a flashlight on him and say, ‘Something’s not right here.’ Come here, show yourself,” said Coy.

“It was the worst night of my life”

Coy said Hill walked up to him with a backlit cellphone in his left hand. But Coy testified that Hill was walking next to a car parked in the garage and that he could not see the man’s right side.

Coy claimed that Hill “was a blade” or took “a stance that a boxer would take if they were going to fight.” He said he believed Hill was holding his cell phone as a “distraction.”

He said he was finally able to see Hill’s right side when Hill got to the back of a car parked in the garage.

“What do you see when he comes back to you?” Collins asked.

Coy replied, “A silver revolver in his right hand.” Coy said Hill appeared to be raising the gun from behind his leg and “it was on me.”

“I got my gun out,” Coy said. “I shouted: ‘Gun! Pistol!” and I fired four shots.’

Collins asked, “Why did you fire four shots?”

Coy replied, “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 was in shock. I started to dry out. I couldn’t control myself. I couldn’t think straight. Everything just blurred for me.”

Coy concluded his direct testimony by saying, “I saw an immediate threat and I didn’t want to be shot right before Christmas.”

The trial is expected to continue on Tuesday.