The white former Ohio police officer charged with murder in the shooting of Andre Hill testified Monday that he fired four times after seeing what he thought was a silver gun in the Black man’s hand as Hill emerged from a dark garage.

Former police officer Adam Coy said he rolled over Hill’s body, saw a pile of keys and noticed there was no gun there.

“I knew I had made a mistake at that point,” Coy told jurors as she fought back tears. “I was horrified. It was the worst night of my life.”

Coy, who served in the Columbus police department for nearly 20 years and was fired after the shooting four years ago, said he thought he was going to die because he mistook the keys for a gun.

Police body camera footage showed Hill emerging from the garage of a friend’s home with a cellphone in his left hand, his right hand not visible, seconds before Coy fatally shot him. Approximately 10 minutes passed before police officers arrived at the scene and started to come to the aid of Hill, who was lying in a pool of blood on the floor of the garage. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Weeks after the December 2020 shooting, amid a series of high-profile fatal police shootings against Black men and boys, the mayor fired the police chief. Columbus later reached a $10 million 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 provide immediate medical attention to an injured suspect.

Prosecutors said Hill followed the officer’s orders and never posed a threat to Coy, who is also charged with reckless homicide and aggravated assault and could face life in prison if convicted of murder.

The first time Coy saw Hill sitting in an SUV, he had gone to the neighborhood to investigate a resident’s complaint about someone in a running vehicle. Hill told Coy he was waiting for a friend to come out.

The officer said Hill appeared unconcerned at first, then thought he became suspicious after he went to a house and knocked on the door before entering the garage.

Coy said he lost sight of Hill and suspected she was trying to break into the house. The officer testified that Coy used a flashlight to locate Hill in the garage and told him to come outside and show himself.

When Hill walked toward him, Coy said he initially couldn’t see the man’s right hand, then saw what he thought was a gun. He said he shouted: “Gun! Gun!” and then fired at Hill.

A father and grandfather, Hill was devoted to his family and a talented tradesman who dreamed of one day owning his own restaurant after working for years as a chef and restaurant manager, family and friends said.

Coy had a long history of complaints from residents, with more than three dozen cases filed against him since he joined the department in 2002, according to his personnel file. A dozen of the complaints involved use of force. All but a few were marked as “unsubstantiated” or “unsustainable”.