A former police officer faces at least 15 years in prison after being found guilty of killing an unarmed black man in the US.

Adam Coy spent nearly 20 years on the Columbus police force in Ohio, but was fired after killing Andre Hill in December 2020.

Hill, who was holding his keys and a mobile phone rather than the gun Coy believed, was shot four times by the former officer in a garage in the city.

Coy, 48, told jurors he believed Hill, 47, was holding a silver revolver and that he was “going to die”.

“He was horrified,” he tearfully said after checking Hill’s body and seeing the keys and realizing his mistake.

Coy was found guilty by a jury on all three counts: murder, reckless homicide and felonious assault, NBC, Sky’s US partner, said.

His lawyer Mark Collins said Coy, who is being treated for Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of cancerhe was devastated by the verdict, and later vowed to appeal.

Hill’s death came seven months after the killing of another unarmed black man, George Floydin Minneapolis, sparking the national Black Lives Matter campaign for racial justice.

What happened moments before Hill was killed

Police dashcam footage showed Hill walking out of the garage of a friend’s house holding a cellphone in his left hand, his right hand invisible, seconds before he was fatally shot by Coy around 1:30 a.m. on Dec. 22 2020.

Coy, who was responding to a report of a vehicle starting and stopping, had ordered Hill out of the garage of a home he believed to be broken into, but where Hill was actually a guest of the homeowner.

It took officers on the scene nearly 10 minutes to begin helping Hill, who was lying bleeding on the garage floor. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Multi-million dollar settlement

Columbus subsequently reached a $10m (£7.7m) settlement with Hill’s family, the largest in the city’s history.

The Columbus City Council also passed Andre’s Law, which requires police officers to immediately render medical aid to an injured suspect.

Prosecutors said Hill, 47, followed the officer’s commands and was never a threat to Coy.

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Franklin County Deputy Prosecutor Anthony Pierson said, “We’re taught, ‘Do what the cops tell you to do and you can survive that encounter.’ That’s not what happened here.”

Shawna Barnett, one of Hill’s sisters, said: “It’s been way too long, but I’m glad it’s over. It’s time to stop. It’s time to make it right.”

More than three dozen complaints have been made against Coy since he joined the department in 2002, records show, but all but a few have been marked as “unfounded” or “unsupported.”