About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (July 18, 2020)
NATION The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com Weekend Edition - July 18-19, 2020 7A Celebrities ask feds to probe student’s 2010 killing STEVEN SENNE I Associated Press Thulani DeMarsay, right, aunt of Danroy “DJ” Henry Jr., who was shot and killed by a police officer, speaks as Henry’s uncle Jamele Dozier, left, holds a photograph of Henry during a news conference, April 21,2011, in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood. BY ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press Rihanna, Jay-Z, Charlize Theron and other celebri ties are calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the death of 20-year-old Danroy “DJ” Henry Jr., a Black football player at Pace University killed by a white police offi cer in New York nearly a decade ago. In a letter sent this week to Attorney General Wil liam Barr, the entertainers say Henry, who was from Easton, Massachusetts, “lost his life for no good reason and with absolutely no good explanation.” The case remains an “unhealed wound” for Henry’s family and the people of New York, they wrote. “The DOJ must truthfully determine whether a pat tern and/or practice of dis crimination played a role in the case of DJ Henry — and if it did — deliver the jus tice that restores this young man’s name and reputation, while giving hope to other young black men who are just like him and desperate for change,” they wrote. Others who signed the let ter are Pharrell Williams, Taraji P. Henson, Odell Beckham Jr., Michael K. Williams, Kerry Washing ton, Mary J. Blige and Gabri- elle Union. An email seeking com ment was sent Friday to DOJ spokespeople. Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York announced in 2015 that they would not bring civil rights charges, saying a thor ough review of evidence did not show that Pleasantville officer Aaron Hess acted with deliberate and spe cific intent to break the law. The officer was previously cleared by a grand jury. Hess shot Henry as Henry drove through a parking lot, away from a disturbance that spilled out of a bar in October 2010 in Mount Pleasant, a New York City suburb. Hess has said Henry was trying to run him down and that he fired through the windshield to stop the driver. The Henrys have said Hess jumped front of the car, got onto the hood and shot their son for no good reason. Another officer, Ronald Beckley, shot at Hess, later saying he did so because he believed Hess was “the aggressor.” Prosecutors said Henry’s car struck the officer and injured him before Hess fired his weapon as he made “a split decision under con ditions of extreme danger, conditions under which the law generally allows latitude to a police officer’s judgment.” The Henrys reached a $6 million settlement with the town and the officer. The celebrities said the facts of the case “reek of local conflict of interest, racial bias and even false testimony.” “Justice, it appears, has been denied,” they wrote. Henry’s father said new information that has come out since the criminal case was closed warrants a reex amination of his son’s death. He pointed to multiple wit nesses who contradicted the police department’s initial account of what happened, including Beckley. “We’re hoping that any one who can reopen this will reopen it,” Danroy Henry Sr. told The Associated Press on Friday. “All we’re asking for is what we asked for from the very beginning -- it’s just a fair review of the real evidence, not sort of a fake presentation of a false narrative, which is all that we believe happened so far here.” The elder Henry said offi cials should reopen the case and shouldn’t wait for calls for the family or others to take action. “That’s sort of the old moment,” he said. “There’s a new moment that’s emerged that requires them to be better. That’s why peo ple are in the streets.” Jay-Z has also called for justice in the case of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who was shot and killed as he ran through a Georgia neighborhood. The social justice arm of Jay-Z’s Roc Nation entertainment com pany in May called on the state’s attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor to help achieve a fair trial. Assistant charged in dismembered tech CEO’s killing BY MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press NEW YORK — A personal assistant arrested Friday in the death and dismember ment of a 33-year-old tech entrepreneur was believed to have owed his boss a “significant amount of money,” New York City police said. Tyrese Haspil faces a murder charge in the death of Fahim Saleh, whose beheaded, armless body was found Tuesday by a cousin who had gone to his luxury Manhattan condo to check on him. Haspil, 21, handled finances and personal matters for Saleh, whose ventures included a ride-hailing service in Africa. Haspil, who grew up on Long Island and lives in Brooklyn, was taken into police cus tody Friday morning in the lobby of another luxury apartment building several blocks from where Saleh was killed, NYPD Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison said. Information on Haspil’s arraignment and a lawyer who could speak on his behalf was not EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ I Associated Press Tyrese Haspil, 21, is escorted out of the 7th precinct by NYPD detectives, Friday, July 17, in New York. immediately available. Officers responding to the cousin’s 911 call discovered Saleh’s body and an electric saw in the living room of his luxury apartment on the Lower East Side, police said. Investigators recovered security video showing Saleh exiting an elevator that leads directly into the full-floor, two-bedroom apartment, closely followed by a masked person dressed entirely in black, accord ing to a law enforcement official who was briefed on the case. The video also showed a struggle between the two that ensued at the entrance to the apartment, said the official, who wasn’t authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity. Harrison said investigators determined that Haspil assaulted Saleh in the elevator with a stun gun a day before his body was found. Speaking to reporters about the arrest, Harrison would not say when police believe Saleh was killed, nor would he discuss other details about the case or take questions. Investigators initially believed that the cousin who went to check on Saleh may have interrupted the attack and that the assailant fled out a back exit. The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide after an autopsy found the cause of death was multiple stab wounds to the body. Saleh was the chief executive officer of ride-hailing motorcycle startup Gokada that started operating in Nigeria in 2018. Saleh’s Linkedln biography described him as a self-taught businessman who founded Gokada, building on his experi ence of first “seeing an opportunity in his parent’s native country of Bangladesh” and starting that country’s largest ride-sharing company. “The headlines talk about a crime we still cannot fathom,” Saleh’s family said in a statement after his death. “Fahim is more than what you are reading. He is so much more. His brilliant and innovative mind took everyone who was a part of his world on a journey and he made sure never to leave anyone behind.” Apartments in the 10-story building where Saleh’s remains were found sell for more than $2 million. The building was completed in 2017 as part of a wave of gentrification in the neighborhood. 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