Police chief slams officer over Andre Hill killing

US authorities released new camera footage on Thursday showing how Columbus, Ohio, police neglected Andre Hill in the moments after he was  shot dead by a police officer.

Hill, a 47-year-old Black man, was shot dead on December 22 by Adam Coy, a white police officer. Hill emerged from a garage and was holding up a cellphone with his left hand and his right hand not visible seconds before he was fatally shot by Coy. Hill was unarmed.

In the newly released footage, two Columbus officers can be seen rolling over Hill after he had been shot and putting handcuffs on him before leaving him alone again. None of them offered any help, even though Hill was groaning and bleeding and barely moved on the garage floor.

An unidentified woman comes out of the home and tells police, "He was bringing me Christmas money! He didn't do anything."

Moments passed before a police supervisor showed up and asked, "Anybody doing anything for him?'' It wasn't until then that an officer began pumping Hill's chest, who later was pronounced dead at a hospital on the same day.

'He was preyed upon'

Relatives of Andre Hill on Thursday said Ohio police treated him "like an animal."

"The way that my brother was treated, to me, it's like an animal,'' said Hill's sister, Michelle Hairston, during a news conference on Thursday.  "He was preyed upon. He wasn't given any kind of chances."

Police Chief Thomas Quinlan said he was horrified by the events.

"As a police chief, and just as a human being, the events of the last week have left me shaken and heartbroken for the family of Andre Hill," Quinlan said in a statement. "Every man and woman who wears this badge should feel the same."

Coy was fired on Monday over accusations of incompetence and gross neglect of duty. He faces an independent criminal investigation by the state as well as the US Department of Justice, according to Quinlan.

A probe is also being conducted into the other officers who responded to the call that ended in Hill being fatally shot.

"Where is the humanity?" said Benjamin Crump, a civil rights and lawyer representing Hill's family and who called on Coy to be arrested and charged.

mvb/dj (AP, Reuters)