Anthony Hill
Birth date:
June 15, 1988
Death date:
March 9, 2015
Age at Death:
26
About
Anthony Hill grew up in Moncks Corner, South Carolina, raised by his mother, and her maternal grandparents. He was very intelligent, scoring a perfect 36 on the English SAT. Mr. Hill loved music. “He could sing,” his mother said in a 2018 deposition. “He taught himself how to play the saxophone, piano, clarinet, guitar." Mr. Hill was close to his grandfather, (a career educator & community pillar). After his grandfather died in 2008, Mr. Hill had "3608"—the years of his grandfather’s birth and death—tattooed on his chest, along with Baylor’s oft-repeated advice to his grandson: “Be sensible.” That same year, 2008, Mr. Hill left USC, a year and a half after matriculating. That fall, he enlisted in the Air Force, where two of his uncles had also served. He was also a former police intern with no major run-ins with the law. He was medically discharged in 2013 after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Mr. Hill was said to love children, and was reported to have been very upset about seeing children killed in the Afghanistan war.
Mr. Hill's struggle with getting effective medications to treat bipolar disorder and rising anxiety, was reported by the media as a possible factor that may have led him to strip nude on March 9, 2015, outside his Chamblee apartment, where he would encounter a police officer arriving after a resident called 911. Shortly after police arrived, he was still naked, obviously unarmed, and shot twice after ignoring commands to stop. Reports say the officer had a taser and pepper spray but did not use them.
Was justice served?
Justice was served. On October 14, 2019, the officer was convicted by a jury of 1 count of aggravated assault, 2 counts of violating his oath of office & 1 count of making a false statement (he at first said Hill hit him in the chest). He was sentenced to 12 years, with chance for probation; he was also banned for life from working for law enforcement or owning a firearm or profiting from the story.