Filed under: News, Race and Civil Rights
The shopping center in Thornwood, N.Y., where football player and college student Danroy Henry (pictured above) was brutally killed by police last month was revisited Thursday by the four teammates who accompanied him on that fateful night.
The students, who were arrested on the night of the shooting, were accompanied by their lawyers. The young men solemnly surveyed all of the poems, candles, flowers and a photo of Henry that had been placed in the parking lot area, where the 20-year-old football star had been gunned down. Daniel Parker (pictured front, center) of Lauderhill, Fla.; Joseph Garcia (pictured above, far right) of Floral Park, N.Y.; and Yves Delpeche (pictured above, far left) of Brooklyn, N.Y., all aged 22, were in the car with Henry and are all accused of obstructing justice by interfering with police attempts to provide the shooting victim with medical assistance. Joseph Romanick (pictured above, behind Parker) 21, of Slidell, La., who was also in Henry's vehicle, is accused of breaking a store window at a bagel shop near the bar.
The young men who face additional charges are Garcia (who police say is guilty of disorderly conduct), Parker (who is accused of resisting arrest) and Romanick (who was slapped with criminal mischief).
The Pace University teammates were arraigned Thursday morning in Mount Pleasant Town Court.
Henry was outside a bar in the shopping center waiting for another teammate when a fight broke. The bar's patron's scuffle spilled outside on to the parking lot. The fighting soon turned in a melee and police were called on to the scene.
When an officer spotted Henry's car parked in a fire lane and walked over to tap on the window, the junior allegedly sped off, hitting the officer and vaulting him on to his car's hood. In front of a throng of fellow students, the officer on the hood and another, fired shots in to Henry's vehicle. It is believed that the officer on the hood fired the fatal shot that killed Henry.
The officers sustained minor injuries. Henry eventually died on the scene after police dragged him out of his vehicle, handcuffed him, then laid him down on the pavement. According to Pleasant police Chief Louis Alagno, Henry received treatment from officers within three to five minutes of the first report of a shooting.
Some witnesses beg to differ and have alleged that Henry was neglected for up to 15 minutes after he was shot. Defense attorney Bonita Zelman (pictured above), who has been very vocal in asserting that the teammate's charges were a cover-up for police brutality, said last month that Parker knows CPR and begged police to let him try to save Henry, but instead, "they put a gun to his ribs and they told him to back ... up or he would be next."
Police and prosecutors are sticking to their guns and denying any foul play as far as brutality; they also contend that no complaint has been filed. Police do acknowledge, however, that they used a stun gun against Delpeche.
All four teammates, who have never been arrested before, are seeking an immediate dismissal of the charges against them and are due back in court on Dec. 16th.