Columbus Police say they're now investigating an officer's instruction for other officers to turn off their body cameras following the fatal shooting of Andre Hill.
Glenn McEntyre, a spokesman for the Columbus Department of Public Safety, says it's possible some officers were not required to have their cameras turned on when responding after the shooting of Hill.
McEntyre says which officers did and didn't follow policy is part of the investigation. The comment was heard in new bodycam footage released Thursday.
Hill, who was Black, was killed the morning of December 22 by white officer Adam Coy, who has since been fired. Coy and another officer, identified as Amy Detweiler, were responding to a non-emergency call when they encountered Hill in an Oberlin Drive garage. Coy shot Hill as he walked out of the garage holding a cellphone.
Coy's body camera footage shows that he fatally shot Hill within 10 seconds of approaching him in the garage. However, because Coy did not activate his camera until after the shooting, there is no audio for the first 60 seconds of the footage – and therefore no recording of Coy's interaction with Hill.
Detweiler told investigators she did not view Hill as a threat before Coy fired. She says she heard Coy said that Hill had a gun just before he fired, but no guns were found.
The Columbus Department of Public Safety fired Coy for his use of force, failure to activate his bodycam and failure to administer first aid to Hill. The city says other officers, including Detweiler, are under a separate investigation for their own failures to activate bodycams or provide aid.
Bodycam footage has shown that officers handcuffed Hill after he was shot, but no officer attempted to aid the unresponsive man for over five minutes.
No criminal charges have been announced yet in the case, which is being led by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
