The Rev. Al Sharpton will deliver the eulogy on Tuesday morning at a memorial service for Andre Hill, the black man who was fatally shot and killed by a Columbus police officer on the Northwest Side last month.
Sharpton, a longtime civil rights activist who has called for police reform and accountability, will speak Tuesday morning at God’s First Church at 3480 Refugee Road in Columbus, said Michael Wright, an attorney who represents the family.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who has represented the families of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and others, will also speak and is expected to issue a “call to action” according to Wright.
Wright wasn’t sure yet whether the service would be available to the general public as COVID-19 had concerns about distancing.
Hill was shot dead by 44-year-old Columbus police officer Adam Coy on December 22, after Coy and another police officer answered an early morning call from a neighbor that an SUV parked on the 1000 block of Oberlin Drive was waiting for a while – and extended a period of time.
The city fired Coy Monday after Public Security Director Ned Pettus said, “Known facts do not indicate that this use of lethal force was objectively appropriate.”
An investigation found Hill was in a friend’s garage when Coy met him and shot him dead within seconds when Hill walked up to the officers who had a cell phone in their hands. The other officer, Amy Detweiler, told investigators that Coy instructed Hill to come out of the garage just before shooting him, and Coy yelled that Hill had a gun.
Police found no weapons on Hill and then offered no assistance for a few minutes. However, at some point they handcuffed him and he was lying on the floor, seriously wounded.
The person who lived in the house said Hill was allowed to be there as he was giving money as a Christmas present.
@ReporterBush
Comments are closed.