(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — The Columbus, Ohio, police union is asking for more medical training and equipment following the death of Andre Hill, a Black man who was shot and killed by a police officer last month.
Newly-released body-camera footage appears to show responding officers handcuffed Hill before rendering any first aid.
Adam Coy, the officer who shot Hill, was fired by the city earlier this week after an investigation determined that his use of deadly force was not reasonable.
The Columbus Division of Police is currently investigating the actions of the other officers who responded to the scene.
Following the release of the footage, the city’s police union is pushing for more training and tools to render aid.
“I don’t think, maybe, perhaps we didn’t realize until the tragic death of Mr. Hill that we didn’t have the appropriate training or the appropriate equipment to properly render aid,” Brian Steel, vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge #9, told ABC Columbus affiliate WSYX-TV in an interview posted Friday.
Steel told the station the current equipment in police cruisers is “very minimal.” The union is asking the division and city to fund basic and advanced life-support training and trauma kits that include dressings and tourniquets.
“We understand, this is going to cost money, this is going to cost training. It’s too important of an issue not to take seriously,” he told the station.
“We believe rendering aid is an important thing. The public clearly demands it, and we are going to answer that,” he added. “We’re going to try to maybe come up with some solutions to some of these problems.”
According to WSYX, Police Chief Thomas Quinn has called for a review of what first-aid equipment should be added to cruisers and the estimated cost for the supplies.
The chief also ordered last week that officers must render aid immediately, according to WSYX. The Columbus Police Training Academy also has been directed to develop a mandatory course for officers on how to apply aid and avoid causing greater harm, according to the station.
Hill was shot after officers were dispatched to a “non-emergency” disturbance call on Dec. 22. Coy’s partner, Officer Amy Detweiler, told investigators she heard Coy scream Hill had a gun, though no weapon was found.
On Thursday, the police division released body-camera footage from several officers on the scene. According to Ben Crump, the lawyer for Hill’s family, officers left Hill in handcuffs for 13 minutes without providing any first aid help.
Quinn called the footage “horrifying.”
“There were many other officers who responded to the scene. None of them used deadly force. But as seen in these videos, few of them rendered first aid to Mr. Hill as they waited for a medic,” Quinn said in a video statement. “We are investigating to get to the bottom of who upheld the policies and standards of the Columbus Division of Police, and who did not.”
Hill’s family is calling on prosecutors to criminally charge Coy in Hill’s death.
“How there’s 22 officers on the scene and with body-camera footage and not one of them helped my dad. But instead, the first time they touch him is to put handcuffs on,” Hill’s daughter, Karissa Hill, said during a press briefing Thursday.
A public memorial service for Hill is scheduled for Tuesday, Crump said.
ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson and Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.
(ARLINGTON, Texas) — A 4-year-old boy was shot and killed in Arlington, Texas, in the first hour of the New Year, according to police.
The boy, identified by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner as Messiah Taplin, was shot about 12:30 a.m. Friday and died just after 1 a.m. at a local hospital, police said.
Police said they have detained “persons of interest” for questioning in the homicide investigation. But no arrests have been made.
Officers went to an apartment complex in the north part of the suburban Dallas city after a 911 caller reported hearing gunshots, the Arlington Police Department said in a statement.
When officers arrived, they followed a trail of blood leading to an unlocked apartment, according to the statement.
“Officers went inside and discovered a crime scene. No one was inside of the apartment at that time,” the statement reads.
As officers were investigating the scene, a vehicle drove into the parking lot that matched a car spotted leaving the apartment complex shortly after the shooting, police said. Officers stopped the car and detained its occupants.
It was not immediately clear if the people inside the car were the “persons of interest” police are questioning.
Homicide detectives were later notified by police in Grand Prairie, about 7 miles east of Arlington, that a 4-year-old boy was taken to a hospital in their city and died from an apparent gunshot wound, according to the statement.
“Investigators believe the child was shot at the Arlington complex on Washington Drive and they are working to determine exactly what happened,” police said in the statement.
No further information was available about the child’s death.
The child’s death was the second fatal shooting Arlington police responded to in the first hour of the New Year. At 12:25 a.m., officers received a call of shots fired in a residential neighborhood in east Arlington and discovered a woman suffering from an apparent gunshot wound on the back porch of a home, police said in a statement. The woman, whose name was not immediately released, was pronounced dead at the scene.
“Investigators do not believe this was self-inflicted and that someone shot the woman on the back porch,” the police statement reads.
No arrest has been made in the shooting.
Authorities asked that anyone with information about either killing to contact Arlington police investigators or the Tarrant County Crime Stoppers line.
Myriam Borzee/iStockBy ROSA SANCHEZ, ERIN SCHUMAKER, IVAN PEREIRA, EMILY SHAPIRO and MEREDITH DELISO, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 83.3 million people worldwide and killed over 1.8 million of them, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Here’s how the news is developing Friday. All times Eastern:
Jan 01, 8:59 am More people without underlying conditions dying from COVID-19 in LA
Early in the pandemic, 10% of patients who died from COVID-19 in Los Angeles County did not have underlying conditions, according to health officials. Today, that number has risen to 14% of patient deaths.
“This indicates, that in fact, that more people than ever are not only passing away, but passing away without any underlying health conditions,” Barbara Ferrer, director of the Los Angeles County department of public health, said during a New Year’s Eve news conference.
Hospitals in Los Angeles are currently overwhelmed to the point that ambulances are waiting hours in emergency bays with patients inside, which prevents medics from responding to additional emergency calls. The death toll in Los Angeles County stands at 10,345.
(NEW YORK) — Each year, the sports world is filled with triumph and adversity, but for fans and athletes alike, 2020 was the perfect storm.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought sports — from professionals to little leagues — to a grinding halt. Meanwhile, a civil rights movement thrust various leagues into the hot seat, prompting reckonings on race relations as athletes’ voices on politics and social justice were amplified.
Beyond championships and records set, here’s a look at eight moments that shook the sports world in 2020:
Death of a legend
The death of NBA champion Kobe Bryant shocked millions across the world in January as athletes, celebrities and fans mourned the sudden loss of a legend.
Bryant, 41, and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna “Gigi” Bryant were among nine who were killed after a helicopter faded from radar and crashed Jan. 26 in Calabasas, California.
The group was flying from Orange County to the Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks, a sports facility named after the Los Angeles Lakers star, who was known as “The Black Mamba.”
Friends, family and NBA stars, including Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal, paid tribute to Bryant on Feb. 24 in a somber memorial, hailing his “Mamba mentality,” his lasting legacy in the NBA and his accomplishments in sports and beyond.
The NBA’s ‘wake up call’ to the US
The NBA shocked fans March 11 when the league announced that it was suspending the season, initially for 30 days, after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert became the first NBA player to test positive for COVID-19.
“The NBA has, over the last 10 to 15, maybe 20 years, become the most progressive major sports league in the country,” Kenneth Cohen, a historian at the University of Delaware and curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, said, adding that having a major sports league shut down “put pressure on other major sports and sporting events” to put “the general public’s health first.”
According to Cohen, not only did the NBA set an example in the sports world in its response to the public health crisis, but this move also served as a “wake-up call” to other industries and to the country as a whole about the severity of what was to come.
At that time in March, no one was wearing masks, social distancing was not a familiar concept, and there were no shutdowns in place — either federal or state.
The day the sports world stopped
The NBA shutdown prompted a rapid and surreal chain reaction.
On March 12, the NHL announced it was pausing its season, the MLB postponed the start of its season, and by the end of the day, the NCAA canceled March Madness.
“The day the sports world stopped,” flashed across the screen on ESPN that night as visibly stunned commentators and athletes marveled at the real-time domino effect.
Cohen said a century ago, sports were also interrupted by the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.
“Major League Baseball did not cancel its season but it did end the regular season early … even Babe Ruth was out — twice actually, he caught the flu, as far as we know,” Cohen said, adding that each league took a different approach to postponements and cancellations at the time.
But Cohen said that the concept of a “bubble” is new. The NBA was first to institute a bubble isolation zone, picking the season back up with strict testing and social distancing guidelines and without any fans. The WNBA, NHL and National Women’s Soccer League followed suit.
Police killing of George Floyd reignites debate over Kaepernick protest
The May 25 death of George Floyd, a Black man from Minneapolis, brought Colin Kaepernick back into the national debate in a big way.
The images of a police officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck as the Minnesota man called out that he couldn’t breathe went viral and were compared to photos of Kaepernick’s kneeling protest against police brutality.
The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback became the first NFL player to take a knee on the football field during the playing of the national anthem in 2016 to protest police brutality. He filed a grievance against league owners in 2017 alleging they colluded to ensure that he remained unsigned. The lawsuit has been settled.
Many athletes around the world — from MLB and NFL players to tennis and soccer stars — protested in 2020 by taking a knee ahead of sporting events.
NFL apologizes for ‘not listening’ to players about racism
In a turn of events, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell issued a video statement June 5 apologizing to players for “not listening” to them about racism and admitting the league was “wrong.”
“We, the National Football League, believe Black lives matter. I personally protest with you and want to be part of the much-needed change in this country,” Goodell said.
The announcement came amid national unrest, and while some appreciated the statement, supporters of Kaepernick criticized the league and questioned its intentions.
NASCAR bans Confederate flag, Bubba Wallace in the spotlight
After years of resistance, NASCAR announced June 10 that it would ban all Confederate flags from its racetracks to foster a more inclusive environment.
Bubba Wallace, NASCAR’s only full-time Black driver who had raced with a Black Lives Matter paint scheme, had been outspoken against police brutality and had led calls for NASCAR to ban the Confederate flag.
After a noose was found hanging in Wallace’s garage later in June, NASCAR drivers and fans rallied around him, and in a powerful moment at the Talladega Superspeedway, everyone from the NASCAR Cup Series garage pushed his No. 43 Chevy down the road in a show of support.
The FBI later determined the noose was not targeted toward Wallace and had been in the garage for months.
Teams drop Native American names
For decades, advocates for Native American rights had been urging teams with Indigenous names and mascots to make a change. But it was not until the latest civil rights movement swept the nation that some of the most high-profile teams relented.
After insisting in 2013 that a name change would “never” happen, Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins, announced in July the team would change its name to the Washington Football Team, after FedEx, which has naming rights to the stadium, requested a change.
In December, the MLB’s Cleveland Indians announced they will also change their name in 2021.
Milwaukee Bucks boycott and the expansion of activism
In the wake of protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, the Milwaukee Bucks took a stand against police brutality by refusing to play Game 5 of the Eastern Conference First Round against the Orlando Magic on Aug. 25.
The boycott led the NBA to postpone all three playoff games scheduled for the next day, and, in a historic show of support, the MLB, WNBA and MLS also canceled matchups as several teams joined the protest.
“Leagues and teams and organizations and institutions are at least starting to understand that they have a role to play in civil rights in creating equity, both within their institutions amongst their staff, and then in the wider community,” Cohen said, adding that the Black Lives Matter movement has even “been taken up by sports leagues around the world.”
FacebookBy MEREDITH DELISO, ABC News
