The past year has been a reckoning for American justice and how it pertains to racial bias. With the murder of George Floyd in May of 2020 by a police officer in Minneapolis, cries for reform and abolition rallied millions across the nation. Numerous institutions and brands confronted their roots in systems that perpetuate racial injustice, and a new spotlight has been shone on the past, particularly involving police shootings. Unfortunately, police brutality is a problem that plagues America, to the point where the UN has called on the United States Government to pass reforms on excessive force by police departments. According to current DA Miriam Rocah, one such case has occurred in Westchester County; DJ Henry, a Pace University student who was shot to death by an officer while driving out of a parking lot in Thornwood on homecoming night. In our research and investigations, the aftermath of DJ Henry’s case was handled poorly, which stood in the way of any proper dissemination of facts. We try to piece together the events of October 17, 2010 and how such events came to be. We have spoken to several individuals who have a connection to the case or had a connection to Pace during that time, including alumni who were attending Pace during the time of DJ Henry’s case as well as the lawyers that represented the Henry family during their lawsuit against the town of Mount Pleasant. Our goal is to shine more light on, according to the Henrys’ lawyer, the specific wrong-doings and cover-ups performed by both the police force and the legal system in order to potentially help pave the way towards accountability.
Homecoming
After Pace University’s football homecoming game on a brisk October night, student athlete DJ Henry went out to a nearby bar in Thornwood to celebrate. He and fellow students were coming back from a football game and decided to visit Finnegan’s Grill, a local bar and restaurant that used to be located in the Town Center at Thornwood. A fight broke out at the business between patrons, unrelated to Henry. The owner of the establishment, Stephen Van Ostrand, asked for his patrons to leave. Police were called in response to the scuffle, and were on their way or already there. DJ Henry and friends went to his car, and were waiting in the fire lane for a few more of their friends. An officer tapped on his car, indicating for him to move, to which Henry complied. Meanwhile, Officer Aaron Hess was by the exit of the parking lot when he noticed a car coming towards him. According to Michael Sussman, a civil rights attorney representing the Henry family, Hess stepped out onto the street in front of the car as it was slowing down and jumped onto the vehicle, unloading his weapon into the windshield and hitting the driver, DJ Henry, in the chest and arm, as well as DJ’s friend in the passenger seat who received a graze wound on the arm by the third bullet. Ronald Beckley, another officer with the Mount Pleasant Police, sees someone jumping onto a car and unknowingly fires at his colleague. “One police officer [Beckley] with thirty years experience is shooting at another [Hess], who he sees jump on a car and can’t understand why in the world he’d be jumping on a car,” Sussman said regarding the actions of two of the officers in the case that night.
“As he shoots him, [Ronald] Beckley, who’s about thirty feet away […] not knowing this individual’s [Aaron Hess]a police officer[…]starts shooting at him!” ~Michael Sussman
As DJ Henry was pulled out of his car and cuffed by officers, there was little in the way of medical attention for his injuries, according to Sussman. Henry was placed face down and left by the side of the road leading out of the parking lot as a woman in a white sweater was directed to Aaron Hess, who had a leg injury which he claims was from being thrown off the car as Henry lost control of the vehicle due to his injuries. DJ Henry’s friends, Brandon Cox, Yves Delpeche, Joseph Garcia and Desmond Hinds attempted to aid him but were prevented by police, who they claim brutalized and arrested them on false charges. Sussman stated that the police were trained in emergency care and had medical equipment in their vehicles they could have used to save Henry. DJ remained untreated as a woman in the white sweater attended to Hess. DJ was eventually given compressions and taken away from the scene, but was not able to be saved at this point. According to Sussman, a survivability expert determined that had prompt medical attention been given to DJ, his chances of surviving the encounter were between 20 and 30 percent, but this chance was lost due to the mismanagement of the situation by the police department.
Original Reports
After the night of the shooting there were many reports and rumors flooding the press. The original press release on the incident was done without the knowledge or consent of the Henry family. In the following reports, there were accounts coming from two different parties, the witnesses and the Mount Pleasant police department. The department was telling the public that officer Hess had no choice but to open fire on Henry to defend himself. The original story given by the police differed quite greatly from the facts that are now known about the case; the original report stated that there were multiple police officers in the fire lane that DJ Henry was driving in, and that Aaron Hess was shooting to protect his fellow officers from a dangerous vehicle. This claim was later contradicted by Hess himself, who said in his sworn testimony that “[he] didn’t move because [he] believed it was going to stop.” According to Carl Castagna’s, an officer with the Mount Pleasant Police, testimony, Hess “was waving his hands in [the] air and yelling for [DJ’s car] to stop.” It was then leaked to the press that DJ had a blood alcohol level of .13%, above the legal limit in New York state, at the time of the incident, painting DJ as a dangerous drunk driver who Hess had no choice but to shoot for the safety of himself and others. Unfortunately, this tragic occurrence is far too common in America. According to Sarah J. Jackson, a commission started by President Lyndon B. Johnson found that the media had a role in perpetuating harmful myths about Black Americans. DJ Henry’s blood alcohol level is irrelevant to the case as camera footage from a nearby store, according to Sussman, showed that DJ Henry’s brake lights were on, indicating he was either slowing down or driving at a slow pace.
Despite this, Officer Hess’s actions, according to his own colleague, Ronald Beckley, were categorized as that of an “aggressor” in a deposition in 2012, where he admitted that the police fabricated much of the initial reports. The police unions backed Hess and pushed the narrative that DJ was drunk and a danger to others, regardless of what witnesses and evidence says. The case began to turn into a disinformation campaign. Sussman himself has stated that there was a pattern of negative portrayals of DJ, who the police department has alleged was drunk and driving recklessly. When speaking to a journalism class in 2015 taught by Dr. Katherine Fink at Pace University, Sussman stated that he believed the blood alcohol sample from DJ was tampered with, along with other evidence. DJ’s parents, Angela and Danroy Sr., also speaking with Pace University students years later, said that they believed the DA at the time, Janet DiFiore, was actively working against them and sided with law enforcement. According to Kenneth Chamberlain Jr., whose father Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. was killed in a similar incident with police, he was warned by DJ’s parents about the obstacles he would face in his case. As stated before, Henry’s case is not unique. What happened to him and others are part of a culture of over policing in America, where officers are seen as the ultimate arbiters of the law. Much of the narrative surrounding these cases are about the use of force and whether it was justified or not.
(Video Credit: Sequoia Cumming)
Sundown Towns
In the United States, there exists a phenomenon known as “sundown towns”. Traditionally these were all-white communities with racial pacts to bar certain groups to move in, such as Black and Jewish people. Homeowners associations grew out of these pacts, and many of these towns were actively hostile to these groups, to the point where violence was perpetrated against them. Tougaloo College has amassed a database of these towns online, listed by state. In New York, Pleasantville is listed as being one of the state’s sundown towns. There is little data aside from population count by race for the years 1920 and 2000 and a “Group(s) Excluded” listing.
Pace Community Impact
Directly after the incident and the announcement of DJ’s death, Pace University had to act quickly to ensure all students, faculty and staff felt supported during the time of confusion and grief according to a 2011 Pace alumni, Vincent Birkenmeyer, the current Director of Residential Life on the Pleasantville campus, who shared his first-hand experience as an undergraduate student during Henry’s case. As the president of Student Government Association (SGA) at the time, Birkenmeyer said he was one of the first students contacted by the Dean of Student Affairs after the fatal shooting. Birkenmeyer stated that he initially received the call from the Dean within 24 hours of the incident and with there being so much confusion over the logistics of the case, he understood the importance of a strong student body. He said he worked hand in hand with Pace’s counseling center to help foster this safe space and conjure conversations focused on the well-being of students and stated that “Student Government played a big role in the immediate days after to bring students together and make sure there was a student run voice.” The very next day SGA held a vigil, the same vigil that occurs every year since then in remembrance of Henry. Birkenmeyer said his main goal as head of SGA was to allow students to gather in a safe space to share their thoughts/ memories of Henry since losing a peer that abruptly left people with a lot of unanswered questions. Now as a staff member, Birkenmeyer unveiled that Pace faculty had been conducting specific procedures behind closed doors to help resolve this issue.
“For weeks after, you could see a lot of blank faces, a lot of blank stares. On a small campus, even if you didn’t know DJ specifically, someone dying that abruptly really shook people.”- Vincent Birkenmeyer
Even after the vigil, the Pace community continued to honor Henry’s memory and advocate for justice. When Aaron Hess was named the Officer of the Year after fatally shooting Henry, students and faculty turned to a pen and paper. Birkenmeyer said, “We did more organized based things like letter writing campaigns. SGA collected and sent more than 100 letters to the governor’s office which students and faculty both signed.” That same year, SGA held fundraiser events aiming to raise money to create the “DJ Henry Memorial Clock.” Birkenmeyer revealed that the president and board of trustees matched the dollar amount they had raised. By March of 2012, the university had successfully implemented the community-funded clock tower in front of Goldstein Fitness Center. The clock has no face or hands but only includes the number 12 which represents Henry’s football uniform number. Every year on October 17th, students congregate in front of the clock tower in his memory .
Another former student of Pace University, Michael Oleaga, shared his perspective as a student journalist on the events that transpired after DJ Henry’s death. He stated that he believed the students of Pace came together during this time, as they collectively felt that what had happened was not right. Oleaga also recounted that during this time, no one on the campus seemed to have anything negative to say about DJ Henry. As the managing editor for The Pawprint (now The Pace Chronicle) at the time, Oleaga was tasked with reporting on the events that had transpired. In his attempts to report, Oleaga said he encountered many roadblocks; sources like the football team of Pace University and DJ Henry’s close friends were not particularly forthcoming with speaking to the newspaper regarding what had happened.
Years later, Pace continues to honor DJ Henry’s case. In 2020, Pace announced their first Social Justice Week as an ongoing memorial for Henry and to show Pace’s commitment to social justice/ advocating for change. Starting on Henry’s birthday, October 29th, Pace plans and promotes events to engage the campus community in justice related issues and tie in how history continues to have an impact. On October 25, 2021, Pace unveiled a mural dedicated to the Henry family, created by artist Brittney Price, an artist known for her work in the Black Lives Matter movement.
Social Change
There are many injustices and systemic issues that America has to reckon with when regarding the Black community and their history in this country. With their role as keepers of the peace police training should involve deescalation tactics rather than simply resorting to use-of-force. To this end, it is highly important that conflict management and self-control be emphasized within police training. A police officer should be capable of mediating a situation and handling it without having to resort to lethal force. There needs to be steps that are followed to ensure no loss of life in a given situation; lethal force should only be used as an absolute last resort, especially in encounters where the other person is unarmed and clearly not a threat. However, in a report by the New York Times, a defense used by officers of the law regarding moving vehicles was that the vehicle could be classed as a lethal weapon, regardless of the driver’s intent. When speaking with the Henry family and others who have been impacted by police violence, they state that they do not want to defund the police, only change how they operate and train their officers. One proposed way in which these types of incidents could be prevented would be in the regular monitoring of the mental health of police officers, to ensure that officers on duty are of sound mind to make split second decisions, especially when lethal force could be involved. Police officers, throughout their careers, can encounter disturbing things, cases that leave mental trauma. Situations like these that officers have to deal with can have powerful and lasting effects on their mental state, especially if an officer has to deal with multiple. Repeated trauma can impair an officer’s judgement. According to former Deputy Commissioner Maryellen Martirano, now a professor of Criminal Justice at Pace, police departments like to hire veterans due to them already being used to the types of training that police officers receive, and they make the recruitment process easier for them by giving them additional points on their tests. This is another factor in why it is crucial that regular psychological exams be conducted on police officers; veterans may experience PTSD that could interfere with their split second reactions, as Officer Hess was a veteran himself and Sussman stated that he might have flashed back to that theater when he saw DJ’s car drive towards him, possibly registering it as a car bomb. Tests administered at the beginning of an officer’s career do not account for other mental trauma that might arise from their day-to-day work or other underlying circumstances. Indeed, officers should be of sound mind when dealing with situations that may or may not require lethal force to be used. Their mindset at the time of a certain scene may mean life or death for the people involved, whether it be a mere traffic stop or something far more serious.
When asked if accessible therapy for police officers would be helpful, Martirano stated “yes, no question about it. I would think PTSD, I mean, that needs to be recognized. And yeah, you have to talk about it. You have to get it out. It’s like any other issue. That is haunting you. The more you bury, it isn’t going away. You need to talk about it.” However, an important distinction she made is that officers should not simply be pushed into therapy, but rather have access to groups of individuals who are going through similar problems. An officer who is simply forced to talk to a therapist may lie and say what they think the therapist wants to hear in order to get through the sessions. Officers must have access to resources that better encourage them to be introspective about the problems they may have. By monitoring officers’ mental states, we may be able to reduce the frequency of tragedies like what happened October 17th, 2010.