Former Ohio police officer Adam Coy pleaded not guilty Friday to the killing of Andre Hill, an unarmed Black man.

On December 22, Coy and another officer were responding to a nuisance call about car noise. As Coy approached the area where the vehicle was located, he encountered Andre Hill. Even though Hill was unarmed, Coy believed his cellphone was a weapon and fired at Hill, striking him four times. Neither officer provided first add to Hill until 10 minutes after he was shot, and he subsequently died from his injuries. Coy, who was part of the Columbus police force for 19 years, has since been fired and was indicted by a grand jury on February 3.

On Friday, Magistrate Judge Elizabeta Saken of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas agreed to release Coy on $3 million bail. Accepting his guilty plea, she barred him from contacting witnesses and added a $20,000 recognizance bond.

This incident follows a series of killings that have raised questions of systemic racial injustice in US law enforcement. On January 6, two Louisville police officers were fired for their roles in Breonna Taylor’s death. On January 28, the Minnesota Attorney General’s office filed a request with the Minnesota Court of Appeals, asking for intervention in the Hennepin County District Court’s refusal to hold a trial for the four former Minneapolis police officers charged in George Floyd’s murder case. 

These recent incidents have also led to a number of newly proposed legislation. In New Mexico, which had the highest rate of police killings in the US per one million people between January 2013 and December 2019, state senator Linda Lopez has introduced legislation on February 1 that would impose stricter restrictions on when officers can use deadly force.