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Family Of Pace Student Disputes Legally Drunk Claim
By
Ben Yakas
Published Oct 27, 2010
Modified Oct 27, 2010
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Oct 27, 2010
Modified Oct 27, 2010
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Last week, a police source leaked the results of the autopsy of 20-year-old Pace University student Danroy Henry, who was shot and killed by police after hitting a cop with his car amidst a chaotic Westchester night. The report allegedly revealed that the underage Henry was legally drunk at the time of the shooting, with a .13 blood alcohol level. But his family and friends do not believe he was drunk, and have criticized that police source: "D.J. was not drunk, not drinking and refusing drinks because he was the designated driver. How our son could have been found to be anything other than sober is perplexing to us and, without any autopsy or the cooperation of the investigators, we must treat this allegation as an intentional fabrication, bad forensic science or an attempt to assault his character," the family said in a statement yesterday.
Pace junior Christine Leone told reporters that Henry "was with me the whole night and wasn't even drinking." The chief of Pleasantville police spoke for the first time about the incident, defending the officers involved with the shooting and shrugging off concerns that the killing could have been racially motivated. "Any attempt to characterize Officer (Aaron) Hess...as racially biased is inappropriate and irresponsible...I trust Officer Hess when he performs his duties as a police officer and until someone demonstrates to my satisfaction that Officer Hess did something wrong I will continue to support him," said Chief Anthony Chiarlitti.
Hess joined the Pleasantville police department in May 2003 after leaving the NYPD. Previously, the biracial family said they didn't want their son's death becoming a racially-charged argument. But there may be an opportunity for some clarity on the incident: five businesses in the shopping plaza where the shooting took place have surveillance video cameras that may have captured what happened the night. Lawyers for the Henry family have asked the New York Supreme Court to order the businesses to preserve and produce the videotapes, and they're hoping to find out which officers shot Henry, what happened before the shooting, how fast Henry's car was going when he was shot, and whether he was left on the street for 15 minutes without any medical attention.
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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