New Focus On 2010 Police Shooting Of NY College Football Player

MOUNT PLEASANT, NY — Years after Jay-Z and Kanye West dedicated a rap release to Danroy Henry, new attention is being paid to the case of the college student shot and killed by a police officer during a post-Homecoming game celebration at a local bar.

Henry was killed in the early morning hours of Oct. 18, 2010. The 20-year-old, who had played earlier for Pace University's varsity football team, was shot by an off-duty policeman from another jurisdiction. Pleasantville Officer Aaron Hess saw a group "acting aggressively" outside a Thornwood bar as he was passing by, called it in, and stayed as Mount Pleasant officers responded.

When police arrived, Henry was parked in a fire lane with friends in the car near Finnegan's Grill. They said a police officer knocked on the driver's-side window and Henry began to move away believing the officer was instructing him to.

Henry was shot through his windshield.

The officer who shot him was the off-duty cop who had hung around. Hess said Henry was driving toward him, hit him, and wouldn't stop. He said he could have stepped out of the way but did not because he always expected people to stop for a police officer. Hess ended up on the hood, and some witnesses said he jumped on it, disputing police accounts. He fired four shots at the driver.

Witnesses at the scene begged police and emergency responders to treat Henry as he lay bleeding out — but Hess said he had suffered a leg injury and he was treated first.

Another officer, Ronald Beckley of the Mount Pleasant police force, also fired. Much later, Beckley said in a deposition that he was firing at the person on the hood, thinking it was the driver, not Hess, who was under attack.

Michael Sussman, the lawyer for Henry's family, said that Beckley reported the reason for firing his gun to Mount Pleasant Chief Louis Alagno and then-Lt. Brian Fanelli, but they instead told the news media that "officers" had shot at Henry for being aggressive.

Seven years later, town officials admitted that "statements made by its officials in the hours after the incident caused additional pain to the Henry family."

The village of Pleasantville — the Pleasantville police union had named their colleague Hess "Officer of the Year" — reached a settlement with Henry's parents in 2016 for $6 million. The size of the settlement the family reached the following year with the town of Mount Pleasant for failing "to respond to the grievous gunshot wounds inflicted by Mr. Hess upon their son" was undisclosed.

The case drew new attention after the police shooting of Michael Brown in Missouri and again after subsequent shootings of black men and boys by police officers.

Rappers Kanye West and Jay-Z have followed the case for years. They dedicated a release to him in 2011.

In 2018, CBS did a 48 HOURS program focusing on his parents and their struggle to restore their son's reputation.

Now Jay-Z, Rihanna and other celebrities have written to U.S. Attorney General William Barr asking that the case be reopened.

They and co-signers Pharrell Williams, Charlize Theron, Taraji P. Henson, Odell Beckham Jr., Michael K. Williams, Kerry Washington, Mary J. Blige and Gabrielle Union said in the letter that "even a cursory review of the fact pattern of what occurred distills more questions than answers," The Journal News reported.

Others are taking up the case as well.

SEE ALSO:

• For the Family of DJ Henry, Ferguson and New York Are Familiar Sights
• DJ Henry's Family Awarded $6M Over Police Shooting
• Settling with DJ Henry's Family, Town Issues Limited Apology
• Henry Remembered at Pace 5 Years After Shooting
• Conflicting Accounts of DJ Henry Shooting Continue to Emerge
• Aaron Hess Named Officer of the Year by Pleasantville Police Union
• No Federal Charges in Cop's Fatal Shooting of Black Student
• Pleasantville Officer Hess Leaves on Disability Retirement
• Kanye West/Jay-Z Commemorate DJ Henry in Rap
• DJ Henry: Parents, Lawyer Claim Cover Up by Authorities
• Deadly Shooting At Thornwood Shopping Center