Former police officer Adam Coy took the witness stand to him murder trial Monday and told a jury he believed Andre Hill was about to shoot him with a silver revolver when he opened fire on the unarmed black man, 47, in the dark garage of a home in Columbus, Ohio .

“I thought I was going to die,” an emotional Coy, a former member of the Columbus Police Department, testified about the fatal encounter with Hill on Dec. 22, 2020.

After firing four shots and approaching Hill, who was lying bloodied on the garage floor, Coy said he looked for the gun he believed Hill was wielding only to find a large set of keys, a lighted cell phone and a package of cigarettes. next to his body.

“I got to a point where I was sitting next to Mr. Hill and I backed him off,” Coy testified. “I started looking for where the gun was and I saw a bunch of keys there and I was like, ‘F—.’ I knew at that moment I had made a mistake.”

Coy, 47, took the witness stand on Monday after the prosecution rested its case. Franklin County prosecutors called just six witnesses over three days and showed the jury seated in the Franklin County Common Pleas Court police camera that filmed Coy shooting Hill, who was leaving the a friend’s garage holding a cell phone.

Prosecutors are expected to file a rebuttal, calling an expert witness on police training, once the defense rests.

Coy, who is white, faces charges of murder, felonious assault and reckless homicide. He pleaded not guilty.

If convicted, Coy faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“Something’s not right here”

Questioned by his defense attorney, Mark Collins, Coy said he responded to a non-emergency complaint of a suspicious vehicle parked on the street at 1:30 a.m. with the engine running and off.

Coy testified that when he arrived at the scene, he approached the vehicle that the 911 caller directed him to.

Coy said as he approached the car, the driver, who turned out to be Hill, rolled down his window and held out a cell phone.

“The driver says, ‘I’m waiting for someone to get out.’ They’ll be out in a second,’” Coy testified.

Coy said he wished Hill a “good evening” and returned to his patrol car and waited for the person to get out and meet Hill.

“He seemed wide-eyed, a little nervous and dismissive of me,” Coy said of Hill. “He wanted to cut off contact with me as soon as he could.”

Coy testified that after several minutes, Hill got out of the car and went up to the front porch of a house and knocked on the door, but got no answer.

He said Hill returned to his vehicle and rummaged through the front seat before returning to the house and knocking on the door again.

Coy said he asked Hill, “What’s going on?” But Hill ignored him.

He said Hill continued to look back over his shoulder at him the second time he went to the front door of the house and knocked, and again got no answer.

“It makes you start thinking, ‘What is this person’s intention?'” Coy testified. “With everything that’s going on right now, I’m starting to gather more reasonable suspicion that there’s a murder going on and he’s not being honest with me.”

He testified that by the time his colleague, Officer Amy Detweiler, arrived on the scene, he had lost track of Hill and that the two officers decided to go up the driveway of the house to determine Hill’s whereabouts.

Coy testified that he did not have his gun drawn as he and Detweiler walked up the driveway.

He said he turned on his flashlight in a dark garage, looking for Hill.

“About this time I see a faint glimmer behind the garage. Maybe two or three steps up the driveway, I see a flicker down to the ground in the back corner of the garage,” Coy testified.

As he pointed his flashlight at the flickering light, he testified, “Mr. Hill is crouching in the back right corner of the garage.”

“I shine my flashlight on him and say, ‘Something’s not right here. Come here, show yourself,’” Coy testified.

“It was the worst night of my life”

Coy said Hill walked toward him holding the illuminated cell phone in his left hand. But Coy testified that Hill was walking next to a car parked in the garage and that he couldn’t see the man’s right side.

Coy claimed that Hill was “doing” or taking a “stance like a boxer would take if they were going into a fight”. He said he believed Hill was holding his cell phone as “a distraction.”

He said he was finally able to see Hill’s right side when Hill got behind the car parked in the garage.

“When he turns to you, what do you see?” Collins asked.

Coy replied, “A silver revolver in his right hand.” Coy said it looked like Hill was raising the gun from behind his leg and “came at me.”

“I drew my gun,” Coy said. “I shouted, ‘Gun! Gun!” and I fired four shots.”

Collins asked, “Why did you fire four shots?”

Coy replied, “That stopped her.”

Coy testified that when he realized he had been mistaken about what was in Hill’s right hand, he felt “terrified”.

“It was the worst night of my life,” Coy confessed. “I went into shock. I started passing out. I couldn’t control myself. I couldn’t think straight. Everything went like a blur for me.”

Coy concluded his direct testimony by saying, “I saw an imminent threat and I didn’t want to get shot right before Christmas.”

The trial is expected to continue on Tuesday.