Seeking Justice and Honoring DJ

That day was full of laughs We got there, the energy was great. My whole family was there I think I made all the games and homecoming. we were all we were all there. we had driven up and We were there to see the game. DJ, he was my shadow. He and I were together all the time My family's really close. Really close, I've always been really close. We are like our own little universe F of us Dad call them DJ. Mom would call him Danny. Danny Always He was the surrogate dad to his siblings. They looked up to him I struggled with math as a high school student and he'd be the first one to sit down and be like, okay, well, let's figure it out He Um It was o my gosh A Joy, a pied piper in the neighborhood. All of the kids loved him with the biggest smile you've ever seen and a very gentle spirit We driven up there the same day, watched the game hung out, and then drove back home So very early in the morning, I was startled awake and I said to Angela, someone is at the door. It was two police officers. They said, Mr. Henry, your son has been in an accident. He handed me a slip of paper and said you need to call this number The nurse on the phone said, A you Mrs. Henry? I said yes, I heard my son was in an accident. And I kept saying, Well, what happened? what happened? And she said, he was shot And I said, who would shoot him? I can't understand who would shoot him. The nurse gave the phone to one of the attending physicians who got on the phone and said he died I Remember just falling to my knees. DJ Henry was a twenty year old Pace University junior back in October of twenty ten when he was fatally shot in his car I heard what sounded like firecrackers, and I heard a car screech. I didn't think anything of it. Homecoming someone probably had fireworks. The L thing I thought about was what ended up being the case Everybody wasn't buying the original story. They immediately didn't fit together, so I had suspicions from day one People believe fervently that they knew what happened. And whenever you hear of a case like this, you can't believe first impressions Something really significant happened in this car. Do you keep evidence from every case that you handle? This is an unusual situation. I needed it to be here so Perhaps a day like today would come when we could tell the story of what really happened here I never thought in a million years it would turn out the way it did We don't need some version of the story that protects one side or the other. Our whole goal was to just get the truth It was in the early morning of october seventeenth, twenty ten It was early. It was after the midnight hour The serenity of Dan and Angela Henry's home in Easttern, Massachusetts was shattered with the unfathomable news that their eldest son, DJ, had been shot to death And I think they heard me scream that he died and came back down. And I just remember laying on the floor crying And Kyle came over and stood over me and he just grabbed my shoulders and he said, Mom, look at me, it's gonna be okay Their younger son, Kyle We just rashed out of the house. I don't even remember if we locked anything up. I didn't even have shoes on The drive from Easton to the Westchester County Medical Center in New York was over three hours We didn't want him there by himself. until we We prayed all the way What was it like when you got to the hospital And as soon as we saw him, we all just screamed and cried And Dan grabbed him and just held him and talked to him, prayed with him, told him that we loved him. To see your brother, the person you grew up with my whole life has been with him. And you see this person lifeless and it was the most horrifying thing I've ever seen in my life He had scrapes and scratches and cuts that he didn't have. I just couldn't believe it The Henry's daughter, Amber got to the hospital later So my mom came out of the doors. She said I need to come take you to say goodbye. It was definitely a moment I knew I knew right there that my life was gonna change The life the Henries built was an American dream Dan, an Ivy League graduate, enjoyed a successful career as a human resources executive. His wife, Angela made the choice to stay home with their three children. So we knew right away that we wanted to work as hard as we could to provide for our children a stable home to parents. Amber, a recent college graduate is the youngest. We are so full of love and we just Want the best for each and every one of us. my turn my to a bus. Kyle, an independent music artist, is in the middle. I alwaysways had each other's backs. always been very strong in each other's lives. In in the cafeteria right now. The cafeteria. Danny, a handsome student athlete was the oldest When he played sports, there was inevitably another Dan or Danny And so Dan started calling him DJ DJ embraced his family so much that it inspired him to get a tattoo His first tattoo was family first. I looked down and saw what he did and said, o, that was. That was well played kidsJ. He's an amazing kid. He wasn't perfect. manan, was he a good guy with immense Promise. So what happened? How did the Henries end up in a hospital crying over their twenty year old son's body Dan called the police investigator in charge and was floored by what he was told. So he said DJ was trying to run over two police officers and that they had to shoot him to stop him The Henries were dumbfounded. They knew DJ was out celebrating with friends after homecoming they could not imagine their son running down police with his car something had to have happened if that happened. What caused him to do something that's so outside of his character And Brandon affirmed for us that he didn't Brandon Cox DJ's best friend was also at the hospital Brandon came in and sat down next to Danny's bed and he just said, he didn't deserve this from what the Henries could piece together. DJ, Brandon, and another friend were in DJ's car waiting outside of a bar Please ask them to move out of a fire lane Brendon said they weren't do anything in that out of the clear blue some guy flashes across with a gun and starts shooting And then before he knows that he's on the car and he's shooting at them Brandon was sitting next to DJ in the car He was shot in the arm but escaped serious injury And we said, Brandon, we need to know everything. And Brandnon said, no, we were driving, we were leaving And he just kept saying He didn't deserve this The family wanted answers, and that morning headed to the Mount Pleasant pololice station just hours after saying goodbye to their son. And we wanted to look him in the eyes and just say, you know, you need to know a little bit about our son What the Henries did not know is that the police chief, Louis Alagno had already conducted a press conference implicating their son. At about one twenty AM this morning, Mount Pleasant Police received a call of a disturbance onp the Biniggan's height in progress Magno said several police officers responded to a fight at Finnean's Grill a local bar about two miles from Pace University's campus reportedly Unruly patrons had spilled into the parking lot. But it looks like it's just a large gathering of the bar According to Allagno, when a policeman approached the car in the fire lane The vehicles sped off. and struck an officer For an unknown reason, a vehicle that had been parked in a fire lane near Finnean's Grill accelerated from the scene. Buger Pleasmal officer attempted to stop that vehicle. That vehicle struck that officer. He was propelled onto the hood. off vehicle. Alagno said the car continued to accelerate and the officer on the hood of the car Shut the driver That driver was DJ Henry. I'm truly saddened by the events that occurred this evening. My condolences go out to the family of the young man that died in this event. The Henris didn't want condolences. They wanted to know how Chief Alagno could make a public statement about their son without talking to them first And you asked the question that they would conduct a press conference without even having talked with you as family, and the response was That's what the officers on the scene told me happened, basically. And we pressed and said, lookook, we want truth. What we want is truth That moment began a long legal journey that would take the Henries from a strip mall in New York all the way to the United States Department of Justice. We're not anti police. We're just trying to understand what the facts tell us. Was it a justified shooting or was it not justified? 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Weight loss by hers is not available in all fifty states. Wgovi is the registered trademark of Novo Nordisk AS. To get started and learn more, including important safety information, Wovi clinical study information and restrictions, visit for hers dot com WCBS Newstime, one hundred four, pololice in Westchester in the community of Mount Pleasant Fire at a speeding vehicle killing the driver identified as a Pace University student We were pushing hard against a very strong current in those early days because they beat us out there with a narrative. And that narrative, as DJ's parents saw it, was that police were blaming DJ for his own death. Good morning everyone The day after DJ was killed, Chief Lewis Alagno held a second press conference and gave more details. The Pleasantville officer that was involved Police Oicer Aaron Hess Police Officer Has was the officer that ended up on the hood of the deceased vehicle. Officer Hass drew his pistol and fired into the vehicle And he said, DJ was accelerating toward a second officer Ronald Beckley, who had also fired at his car. Another officer, Mount Pleasant Officer Beckley, was also standing in a fire lane as his vehicle drove towards him. He also discharged his weapon at the vehicle The effort clearly was to villainize our son. It was to make him seem like a criminal thug that needed to be stopped But DJ's friends say that is not how it happened We weren't doing anything wrong. We were in a wild wild west. That's what it felt like DJ's teammate, Desmond Hines, was in the car that night with DJ, Brandon and two other friends who went to Finneans's As long as the football team was together, that's where we want it to be, having fun After that fight broke out, the bartender called police And soon six officers arrived DJ and his passengers were not involved and they headed to the doors So it seemed a little bit early but the lights came on and The bouncers were telling everybody to get out and I heard her. DJ's friend, Brandon Cox They said it's done, it's done, so we're leaving You can see DJ here in security footage just minutes before he was shot. DJ, Brandon, and Desmond waited outside in DJ's car for their two other friends Brandon was in the front seat. As they were waiting, he remembers an officer tapping on the back window, asking them to move And he started to make a forward motion to move forward. That's when DJ puts the car into drive and starts to pull away We just pulled off slowly And so where we were parked it was like there was like a curve in the in the roadway As we come around that curve, I can see Somebody running from in between those two cars with a gun raised I look and I see this dance Two hands on something. I never I didn't see the gun. To hands pointed at, pointed at the vehicle Within seconds, that somebody, Officer Hess was up on the hood, shooting. I could feel something hit my arm. that moment, not sure what's going on, not sure what it is, and I'm just ducking down to just try to get out of harm's way. Brandon and Desmond both say they never saw that second officer, Ronald Beckley at all I didn't hear anything. It was like everything was silent, but I just saw bullet holes after bullet holes. There was three or four total At least one bullet hit the seat next to Desmond Brandon had that Grey's wound to the arm and DJ was shot twice through his lungs and his heart teacJ goes, they shot me, they shot me And then he just made his moan this moment that I would never forget DJ's car crashed into a parked cruiser and stalled to a stop Here Two officers took DJ out handcuffed him and laid him on the ground Desmond remembers being pulled out by yet another officer. And he slammed me on the ground. And I go, offfficer, we did absolutely nothing wrong And he had a gun and he pointed it to the back of my head. He said, shut the do up And at that point, I thought I was gonna die I was asking everyone okay, what happened? What happened? Daniel Parker was friends with Desmond and DJ from the football team. And no one said anything. You know, everyone was just like staring. He came out of Finnean shortly after hearing a disturbance outside cell phone video shot by a fellow student captured that scene Daniel spotted Desmond. here on the sidewalk, also in handcuffs And I was like, Desmin, you okay And she was saying like They shot DJ. This is dash cam video from a cruiser that pulled in after the shooting On the right is Officer Hess Behind him is DJ lying in the road. You know, I saw that no one was by him. and I was looking, I was like, you gott to be kidding me.ike, what's happening right now? Why is no one helping you The first person to try and revive DJ was this woman in the white sweater A civilian I saw her struggling to try to give him compressions and was like, Hey, you know, that's my teammate. canan I go help? I said, I'm CPR certified. canan I help them no answer is it's like get bad And his like eyes open and I sawly blood in his mouth. And that's the moment, I was like, killed him Daniel says after saying that, he was also thrown to the ground and handcuffed Ten long minutes had elapsed from that first call about the shooting before DJ was finally hooked up to a defibrillator in the days after losing their eldest son Dan and Angela Henry had to confront more than just their grief. They were facing two very different versions of events One from the police. and another from DJ's Friends So I immediately had a conflict. Clearly, we knew we needed to have counsel, but I needed a really good local attorney who would push hard to get at truth. The Henries hired Michael Susman, a legendary civil rights attorney from New York And I remember in that first meeting, Danroy looking at me and saying to me, I don't want to make this about race. I don't want that to be the narrative. I want to understand the details of why it happened Officer Hess, his knee badly injured, was also taken to the hospital that night And soon he too had a lawyer of his own. He doesn't see himself as some kind of hero. Aaron Hess. is A victim The Second World War is the largest event in human history twenty part series with Tom Hggs. No part of the globe was untouched, no life unchanged. experience the ultimate account of World War II. Every single person had a story These are the stories that make us who we are Listen to World War Io with Tom Hanks on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. We gathered together to talk about being a catalyst for change Let us pray together. I have to get up every day without him. I have to come home to an empty room I'll often stare at his picture and just I'll just talk to him I'll just sit there and just really try to absorb the fact that This is how I'm supposed to be living now In the months after DJ's death, as his family grieved, the West Chester District attttorney's office began an investigation, standard procedure at the time In January of twenty eleven, they convened a grand jury to see if officer Hess should be charged with any crime. DJ's father, Dan Roy, was called to testify. The only questions I was asked two weeks before the grand jury wrapped up was, did I know that DJ drank occasionally? That's it A month later, mis. Henry got a call. Earon Hess was not indicted on any charge. The DA's office in Westchester County executed a sham. Pretty strong words. Yeah, that's what they did. And if I could think of a stronger word, I'd use it The gentleman was not charged with anything, criminally negligent homicide, manslaughter, murder, anything There should have been a charge and there should have been a criminal trial. The Henry should have had, if you will, the satisfaction, not that it's much satisfaction, of believing that their son's life had that much value Hours after the grand jury decision, after Susman's repeated urging, the U.S. Department of Justice began a separate investigation looking into a possible civil rights violation, a federal crime Weeks later, Hess's union named him Officer of the Year. They said afterwards, the award was not meant to be public They wanted to do that privately to boost Aaron Hess's morale. To boost The officers? Because he had been through a lot. because he had been through a lot While the Department of Justice was looking into the case, the Henries filed wrongful death suits against Aaron Hess, the village of Pleasantville, where Hess worked, and the town of Mount Pleasant, where DJ was shot. hand In august twenty twelve, nearly two years after DJ's death Hess came to the U. S. District courthouse in Westchester for a deposition in the wrongful death cases. Were you the first police officer on the scene? Yes. With their attorney, Michael Susman asking questions, Dan and Angela Henry were there. It was really, really important to us to be in the room. We wanted to look in the eye of the guy that shred our son. We wanted to hear him tell us why, to see his face, to have him look us in the eye, to see Danny when he looked us in the eyes That night specifically was a bad night I only reacted to what I thought I was going to be killed. Originally I was worried that I was going to go in there and be just filled with anger, but I saw him and I just I didn't feel anything for him At the time DJ was killed, in twenty ten, Aron Hess was thirty three years old married and expecting twins He had served four years in the Marines and had been a police officer since two thousand first in New York City and later for his hometown of Pleasantville, New York That was Aron Hess. Well liked. Brian Soakolov represents Aaron Hess. Up until october seventeenth twenty ten He had never fired his weapon in the line of duty the sponsor Finnean fight in prorogress Hess arrived at Finneagan's shortly after the call went out about the fight When met officer tapped on DJ's window, Hess says he was standing in the parking lot about thirty feet away. Aaron Hess, who's around the bend observes three things happen simultaneously. A, he hears an engine rev. B He hears an officer yell, stop that car or stop that vehicle and he sees an officer get Turned off balance. Turned off balance, suggesting that suuggesting that something was amiss Tess says that's why he stepped across the road face DJ's car as it drove toward him. Could you determine its rate of speed Fast. puts up his hand and yells Stop Stop The car doesn't stop He draws his weapon Why didn't you move out of the way of the vehicle ' I thought the vehicle was gonna stop. Why did you believe that I believe it was gonna stop because every other vehicle I've asked to stop in my career have stopped As the vehicle was coming towards me, I lunged forward as it hit my legs. At that time as I was on the hood, the engine revved up again and seemingly seemed to me that trying to get thrown off of the vehicle. At that time is when I I fire my weapon As he was shooting, Hess says he could not see anyone inside the car.o did you aim at? The center mass of the driver. So you saw the driver. I saw the silhouette. I didn't physically see a driver. It wasn't until they were both lying in the road, Hess says that he first saw DJ The first time I observed the driver, he was fac down handcuffed. Could you tell whether he was alive? No. Could you see whether he was breathing? No Now, what were you doing at that point lying on the ground as well Was anyone tending to you at that point I'na take a break. J giveive me a second. Sure, takeake your time I'd like somebody to tell me what other alternative Aaron Hess had on the hood of a moving vehicle other than trying to save his own life or closing his eyes and saying his prayers. Did you hear any comments or remarks about his status on the scene Yes. What did you hear I heard someone say he's dead Aaron Hess did not return to work after the shooting. He was on paid medical leave for two years, then retired with disability for his knee injury at the scene Then, a few weeks after Hess was first deposed, the Henries found support from a very surprising source. That second officer, whom Chief Alagno had said, also fired at DJ's car Ronald Beckley, he was willing to go against the script to try to stand up for what was true. The Henry's lawyer, Michael Susman, is determined to keep DJ Henry's memory alive in the driveway of his home. Why do you keep this car? The car is a tangible representation of what happened. And when you see the bullet holes and you see the situation with the axle of the car here and the wheel, you have a very clear, constant reminder of what happened. And I think that's very important to the truth telling process That truth, says Susman, would come out during the wrongful death suits in the testimony of one brave police officer Officer Ron Beckley Who is he? He's an American hero. Ronald Beckley directly refuted the official version put out by his own department. In fact, the police chief's version was that DJ Henry was threatening Beckley Beckley disavowed and said, this is not what happened According to sworn testimony in those wrongful death suits Mount Pleasant pololice officer Ronald Beckley arrived on the scene that night and fired his weapon For the first time in his thirty year career, at Aron Hess. He sees a person, as he described it in dark clothing jumping on a vehicle. And he takes out his weapon and he fires a shot because he sees the person jumping on the vehicle as the aggressor and believes that that person is shooting and endangering other people And he has to try to stop him Beckley did not realize that Hess was a fellow officer Within hours of the incident Beckley reported his account to his superiors But the official version from Chief Lewis Alagno misrepresented Beckley's version. leaving the impression that Beckley was shooting at DJ Henry. Another officer, Mount Pleasant Officer Beckley, was also standing in a fire lane as his vehicle drove towards him He also discharged weapon at the vehicle. was willing to go against the script to try to stand up for what was true When Ronald Beckley did that, it was an answer to prayer Aaron Hess's lawyer, Brian Soakolov, says Beckley is no hero. and that he broke department rules. Officers are forbidden from firing at a moving vehicle. Instead of saying he was firing at the moving vehicle, he then says, I was firing at Aaron Hess. Mr. Beckley didn't lie. Mr. Beckley showed tremendous courage both at the scene and afterwards. because The blue code of silence does exist and Beckley knew in a certain sense that his career was over Ronald Beckley retired three months after DJ Henry's death. denied a full disability pension The person who apologized to the Henries, the person who cried with the Henries was officer Ronald Beckley who said to them in my presence, I wish I could have stopped this and broke down And then there is the question of how fast DJ Henry was driving. Michael Susman gave us this video of a test conducted by Westchester County police In it, DJ's car is shown accelerating to where Eron Heess was standing DJ's friends made it clear that he was driving slowly. I would say maybe fifteen, ten to fifteen miles per hour. Nothing reckless. Nothing reckless. Nothing dangerous. No. Not endangering anybody. You saw no pedestrians at all. Noope There were no pedestrians in the way. There was nothing blking blocking our path Initially, what was told to me by the DA's office was that there were a group of civilians who were crossing the path in the parking lot. And that the thought was he had to stop this car from running over those civilians. And we started pulling it apart, no one could ever identify these civilians, where they were. How Hess knew anything about them? mean just there was no justification. It made no sense. Did he officer Hess notot have the option, the alternative getting out of the way No, notot at the time that he felt his life was in danger. So no room maneuver. Not once he felt his life was in danger However, Michael Susman says this security video from the parking lot that night shows the brake lights of DJ Henry's car as he was nearing Aron Hess. He was slowing down So I don't have to rely on a million eyewitnesses. I have the video showing the slowdown I have the bullet holes DJ was every young man. DJ was not doing anything that was out of character, out of ordinary hum It just wasn't But just after DJ's death A toxicology report was leaked to the press that showed his blood alcohol level atzero point one three That means DJ would have been impaired that night The Henry's lawyer disputes that. The bar owner who we spoke to And all the other people we spoke to about DJ in that bar said he had nothing to drink in the bar. I did not see him have one drink at Finig's. The entire evening. The entire evening that was there According to DJ's friends, he did have one drink earlier in the evening B back at the dorm That night, I witnessed him having one drink. That's it. That was it In a video from the bar that night, DJ does not appear to be impaired I didn't see him wobbly, I didn't see him behaving in any kind of a berrnt or unusual way whatsoever. Brian Soakoloff insists the toxicology report proves that DJ was breaking the law. and had a reason for trying to leave the parking lot quickly He did have a fake ID He was intoxicated We produced a report by a an eminent toxicologist There's no other evidence on this. There's been no other report, no other expert contradicts this. For those who say DJ Henry was drunk Okay, let me make something very clear No officer at that scene had any knowledge of DJ's drinking So he wasn't acting like he was drunk if he was drunk, and we have no real reason to believe he was It's that simple I want to make this clear. We are not looking to demonize Damrooy Henry who tragically lost his life that night An officer is entitled protect his own life And that's the answer TJ was devalued It's the simplest way to put it He was some kind of common criminal who was handcuffed, thrown to the gutter Through their pain, as the wrongful death suits dragged on, the Henries were still waiting to see if the Justice Department would bring criminal charges in their son's case We just wanted to know if he was justified in taking our son's life. These are DJ's ashes. Burberry was his favorite. so that's why we have this Burberry finish. And then someone gave us this angel, which we felt was fitting to be here. By twenty fifteen, it had been four years since the Justice Department began its investigation ay Henry's hopes were with then US attorney Preet Barara. And he said, Look, I'm not afraid to prosecute these things. I'll take them on. You should know. I'm not afraid to do it. So we were hopeful They were warned that it wouldn't be easy He said to us that the standard for prosecution was a high standard known as willfulness. There had to be a willful violation of civil rights. So you saw the driver. I saw the silhouette Proving willfulness would be hard because Aaron has said he could only see a silhouette when he made the choice to shoot DJ Henry from point blank range Aaron Hess could not see into the car He did not know the race The gender the age of anybody in the car. Do you think that the events of october seventeenth twenty ten would have unfolded differently if the occupants of the car We're white. Absolutely not The Henries did not get the result they sought They chose not to pursue federal civil rights charges. There were no charges The U. S Aorney found that Aaron Hess had to make a split second decision And the law allows latitude for an officer's judgment respondent after exhausting all criminal options, in twenty sixteen, the Henries decided to settle their wrongful death suit with the village of Pleasantville and Aaron Hess. The village paid six million dollars It's in a trust. We won't touch it. It's blood money to us Pug money They wanted you to put a dollar amount on your child's life. How can you do that There is no appropriate amount In twenty seventeen, the Henries also settled a wrongful death suit with the town of Mount Pleasant for an undisclosed amount but they got something more valuable to them plic apology. They wanted to apologize in private, but we felt that they mischaracterized our son in public so the apology should be made public. Knowing that even in his death they continued to bash his name and say such negative things is is just adding salt to the wound The town released this statement which read in part, quote The town regrets any statement made on its behalf and the immediate aftermath of the incident and regrets the misimpression of DJ Henry those statements may have caused. If It were up to me I wouldn't even want them to say anything They've said enough by what they've done They said enough But something big was achieved. Seven long years after the tragic death of their promising young son The Henries cleared Dan Roy Henry Jr.'s name. It was important because we knew who our son was and is. Do you consider that public apology an admission of guilt? Yes I mean that's how we took it I think in the public apology, they say it's not, but that's how we took it. But the fact remains that no criminal charges were brought in DJ Henry's case Today, Eron Hess is employed in private security When you do think about Officer Hess, what are your thoughts I'm praying that at some moment in his life. He will fall to his knees and ask for forgiveness for what he did And I pray that he never has to deal with it with his children I try not to think about him I try not Good evening My name is Dan Henry. Through their sorrow, the Henries have found a way to honor their son's memory. In twenty eleven, they started a charity called the DJ Henry Dream Fund And the foundoundation was a way to honor our son's love of fitness and sports. The fund sponsors children in need from New England to attend summer camps and programs So far, it has given away over half a million dollars to deserving kids what moves me the most is when kids that come and tell their stories say thank you to Danny. That's power for DJ Henry's life was powerful childhood friend Brandon Cox keeps a wristband It says this is to the memory of Dan Roy Henry. No matter what, I'm gonna remember him. He's a part of me forever