By Dan Murphy
Ten years ago, in 2010, I watched the news reports about the death of a young Pace Unversity student and wondered why the event happened, and what was I missing. The students name was DJ Henry, and he was celebrating a Pace Football team win at a bar in Thornwood.
The first thing that came to my mind then, and even more so now, is how young African-American’s are always told by their parents to be mindful and careful of the police, and to act in an overabundance of caution.
Those words of caution do not equate to the story that police officers told about what happened on October 17, 2010 at Finnegan’s Grill in Thornwood. A fight had just broke out in the bar as Henry and his college classmate attempted to drive out of the parking lot.
At this point, off duty Pleasantville police officer Aaron Hess stepped in front of Henry’s vehicle, after which the details of the events that evening become confused and with conflicting versions of what happened. Hess ended up on top of the hood of Henry’s vehicle, where he fired four gunshots into the windshield, striking Henry and a friend of his.
Henry was removed from the car, handcuffed and left for dead as police officers attended to officer Hess. Henry’s friend, Brandon Cox, who was in the car and was also grazed with a bullet, asked the officers to help his friend.
Two Pleasantville police officers fired at Henry’s car; Hess and Police Officer Ronald Beckley. But two years later, Beckley testified that he fired his gun at Hess, not realizing that he was a police officer but because he thought that Hess was the “aggressor” in the incident.
Beckley’s testimony, two years later, was different to what Mt. Pleasant Police Chief Louis Algano said happened, which was that Henry drove aggressively toward Hess and Beckley, resulting in numerous shots fired into Henry’s car.
DJ’s mother, Angella Henry, said that Beckley was the officer who told the truth. “It’s a shame that Ronald Beckley, the officer who told the truth about DJ’s killing, was denied pension, but Hess received his. What kind of system punishes an officer for doing what’s right? These are all changes that need to be made,” Angella Henry said.
“We’d welcome a reexamination into our son’s case. All of the evidence is there, we just need someone with the courage to convict all those involved.”
Angella Henry sees a connection between her son’s death ten years ago and the recent death of George Floyd. “Our son was killed by a white officer, handcuffed and left on the street to die,” Angella Henry told The Enterprise, a newspaper in the Massachusetts town of Easton, where the Henry’s are from.“People asked the officers to intervene, but they didn’t — the same as Mr. Floyd.”
“We relive the horrific images of our son’s last moments — of him dying on the ground without help,” she said. “These will never go away but are always brought to the forefront when one of these cases, and there are many, happen.”
In 2016, Henry’s parents reached a $6 million settlement with the village of Pleasantville and Hess, to resolve a civil wrongful death lawsuit the family brought against the municipality. The Town of Mt. Pleasant also made a public apology to the Henry family.
Hess’ attorney, Brian S. Sokoloff, said that his client “was thrown onto the hood of a speeding car by an intoxicated driver.” Hess was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing by a grand jury, and in 2015, then US Attorney Preet Bharara said that there was not enough evidence to indict officer Hess.
The attorney for the Henry family was Michael Sussman, known for his portrayal in the HBO Miniseries “Show Me a Hero.” During the Civil Suit, Sussman presented evidence which included a video camera from outside the bar showing Henry’s car with its break lights on and traveling at 14 miles per hour. And friends of DJ Henry said that he was not drinking at all.
DJ’s sister Amber Henry wants the case re-opened, Tweeting, “The shooting death of my brother DJ Henry in Pleasantville N.Y by officer Aaron Hess should be reopened, investigated and prosecuted. He was MURDERED, plain and simple. The town and the police tried in vain to cover it up. Justice. NOW.”
