Special News Series: Rising Up For Justice! – Forensic pathologist rules Andre Hill’s death was a homicide caused by multiple gunshot wounds

Introduction To This Series:

This post is one installment in an ongoing news series: a “living history” of the current national and international uprising for justice.

Today’s movement descends directly from the many earlier civil rights struggles against repeated injustices and race-based violence, including the killing of unarmed Black people. The posts in this series serve as a timeline of the uprising that began on May 26, 2020, the day after a Minneapolis police officer killed an unarmed Black man, George Floyd, by kneeling on his neck. The viral video of Floyd’s torturous suffocation brought unprecedented national awareness to the ongoing demand to truly make Black Lives Matter in this country.

The posts in this series focus on stories of the particular killings that have spurred the current uprising and on the protests taking place around the USA and across the globe. Sadly, thousands of people have lost their lives to systemic racial, gender, sexuality, judicial, and economic injustice. The few whose names are listed here represent the countless others lost before and since. Likewise, we can report but a few of the countless demonstrations for justice now taking place in our major cities, small towns, and suburbs.

Forensic pathologist rules Andre Hill’s death was a homicide caused by multiple gunshot wounds

By Amir Vera, CNN

March 26, 2021

An Ohio coroner’s office ruled this week that Andre Hill, who was fatally shot by a former Columbus police officer, died of multiple gunshot wounds and that his manner of death was homicide. Hill was shot once in the chest and three times in the right leg, according to Dr. Elaine Amoresano, the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy.

Adam Coy, the former officer, shot and killed Hill, a 47-year-old Black man, on December 22 within seconds of their encounter. Hill was unarmed and walking toward Coy holding an illuminated cell phone in his left hand, body camera footage shows.

Coy was indicted in February on charges of murder in the commission of a felony, felonious assault and two counts of dereliction of duty — one based on Coy’s failure to use his body camera and one “based on his failure to inform his fellow officer that he felt Andre Hill presented a danger,” said Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.

The autopsy comes as the United States is still reckoning with its history and current systemic issues of race. The country is coming off of a year of protests calling for police reform after the deaths of Black people such as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Rayshard Brooks at the hands of law enforcement…

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