Scholarship News

Mount Pleasant, NY, United States (AHN) – The Justice Department is set to begin its probe of the death of a Pace University student shot by police last year. A grand jury cleared the officer in the shooting, a decision the victim’s family had expected.

“We never believed the indictment would come at the state level. We always thought it would have to come at the federal level,” Danroy Henry, Sr., the father of Danroy “D.J.” Henry Jr., said on CNN’s “American Morning” on Tuesday.

The younger Henry died Oct. 17 after being shot by a Mount Pleasant police officer responding to a bar brawl. The business management junior allegedly two struck officers with his car, but the victim’s family says he was murdered.

Westchester County District Attorney Janet Difiore announced Monday that a grand jury had found “no reasonable cause” to indict Aaron Hess, the officer who shot Henry.

The grand jury began its hearing on the incident last month and heard testimony from 46 civilians, including some Pace University students. Hess was among members of law enforcement who testified, and he did so without protection of immunity from prosecution.

According to police, an officer had knocked on the window of a car parked in a fire lane outside the bar in Thornwood. The car, driven by Henry, sped off and struck the officer, who ended up on the hood of the vehicle.

A second officer tried to pull the first officer from the hood but was also mowed down by the car. The first officer then shot at the vehicle and another officer fired into the car before it crashed into a police cruiser.

Two officers were treated for minor injuries after the shooting. Of the two passengers in the car with Henry, who were also Pace University players, only one was hurt with a minor gun shot wound.

Henry’s family and students who witnessed the incident have raised doubts about the police’s reconstruction of events that led to his death. They say Henry, who played wide receiver and defensive back for the university football team, was simply moving his car from the fire lane.

“He was asked to move his car from one police department and a different officer from another police department killed him,” the victim’s father told CNN.

As early as a week after the shooting, Henry’s family had requested the Justice Department to take charge of the probe, citing the leak of a blood alcohol test as proof the investigation was compromised. The family has also criticized Mount Pleasant police for failing to protect gunpowder evidence on the car.

View full post on Education Stories