Three college football players who saw a teammate get fatally shot by police outside a suburban bar were brutalized by officers and arrested when they tried to help their mortally wounded friend, their lawyer said Wednesday.
Danroy Henry
One player knows CPR and begged the police to let him try to save Danroy Henry, but instead “they put a gun to his ribs and they told him to back … up or he would be next,” attorney Zelman told The Associated Press.
She said the other two teammates were zapped with stun guns when they tried to intervene. They said Henry, “was on the pavement, handcuffed and dying, and no one was helping him,” she said.
Kieran O’Leary, a spokesman for the Westchester County police, which made the arrests, said the department had received no formal complaint regarding excessive force. “If we received one, we’d look at it,” he said.
Zelman did not make allegations against specific officers, claiming some of them covered their badges.
by Barry Leibowitz WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (CBS/AP) Four, Pace University, football players who were arrested after teammate, Danroy Henry, was fatally shot by police want an immediate dismissal of the charges against them.
Their attorney, Bonita Zelman, calls the charges a cover-up for police brutality. She successfully opposed prosecutors' request to postpone Thursday's scheduled court appearance, saying, "If they don't have enough evidence now to bring the case...they didn't have enough to charge them."
A spokesman for Westchester District Attorney Janet DiFiore said Wednesday that the judge in the case had denied a request for a two week delay.
Prosecutors say the four students' cases are part of an ongoing investigation into the Oct. 17 shooting death of the 20-year-old Henry, of Easton, Mass. The junior was shot to death in his car near the scene of a disturbance outside a bar in Thornwood, about 25 miles north of New York City.
Police say Henry sped away and hit two officers after another officer knocked on his car window. Michael Sussman, a lawyer for Henry's family, claims that witnesses, including passengers in the car, contradict the police account. The district attorney is coordinating an investigation.
The teammates were arrested in the chaotic aftermath of the shooting. Three allegedly interfered with getting medical aid to Henry and one was charged with breaking a store window.
Zelman said last month that her clients - Daniel Parker, Joseph Garcia and Yves Delpeche, all 22, and Joseph Romanick, 21 - were brutalized by officers at the scene. Police say they have received no brutality complaint.
After the shooting, Henry was handcuffed and placed on the pavement by officers. Mount Pleasant police Chief Louis Alagno said last week that Henry received treatment from officers within three to five minutes of the first report of a shooting.
But some witnesses have alleged that Henry was neglected for up to 15 minutes after he was shot. Zelman said last month that Parker, of Lauderhill, Fla., 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."
Zelman said she's seeking dismissal so "these false criminal charges won't be hanging over the heads of these innocent kids any longer." She also said some of the defendants' relatives have arranged to fly in from out of state.
[my take on the story]
Frankly this is just monstrous and thank God there were so many witnesses to completely block the police's story on this. So many people, blatantly and blindly believe the police when they say, someone ran or fled the scene of a crime. The fact is, police lie all the time. I would say, according to a policeman who was giving an instructional speech at law school, that police lie 90% of the time. They have NO obligation to tell the truth, nor do they have to tell you your rights, all of them, under the law. You are obligated to know your rights on your own. Ignorance is no defense, under the law. Therefore, police can lie through their teeth and get away with it. They don't have to tell you anything and they can falsify whatever they want, and do.
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