Initial report of bartender slaying was wrong
January 10, 2009 at 10:30 am by Mara Shalhoup in NewsThe AJC reports today that Atlanta police have corrected numerous details that were released in the hours after John Henderson, a bartender at the Standard Food and Spirits, was killed Jan. 7.
The most “startling” correction about Henderson’s death? According to the AJC, “His killers might not have meant to kill him.”
Nor was he killed execution-style, as the Atlanta Police Department initially claimed. In fact, the entire narrative of the incident inside the popular Memorial Drive bar and restaurant was way off.
The story goes on to say:
After robbing the bartenders of the business’s money, the [four or five] robbers closed the office door and fired several shots through the door before they left.
[Atlanta homicide detective Anthony] Gentile would not confirm that one of warning shots was the fatal bullet to Henderson’s head — he was shot three times, not four as originally reported by police — but the detective acknowledged that Henderson’s death could have been unintentional.
There are also several details that have been erroneously reported by police, Gentile acknowledged:
• The female bartender never hid in a cabinet for safety.
• One of the robbers never told the others not to shoot the woman.
• The robbers never told the bartenders to lie face-down on the floor.
• The wounds to Henderson did not come while one of the robbers stood over him, shooting him once in each leg and twice in the head.
Gentile said he doesn’t have a good explanation for the misinformation that was given to the media by the Atlanta Police Department, aside from saying that much information was being tossed around in the initial hours after the killing.
Though the new details might make the crime seem slightly less vicious, the gunmen wouldn’t be less culpable — even if they didn’t mean to kill Henderson. Under Georgia law, if a person is killed while a suspect is committing a felony (armed robbery, for example), that’s “felony murder.” The charge carries a mandatory life sentence.
January 10th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
How do four masked men rob an unarmed citizen at gunpoint, shoot him four times at close range, and that be considered by the police or the AJC’s reporting as an “unintentional” homicide, as the most recent story and the officer’s quote, suggest? This kind of wording is only going to anger more friends and family, one like myself.
I hope CL does a better job investigating this horrible incident than AJC, and the next article about this tragedy is written with a bit more attention to details and investigative reporting, regardless of the accuracy of the media’s sources.
January 10th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Sounds like Shirley and Pennington had a talk with the boys down at the precinct in an attempt to soften up details of the account for public consumption.
I also wonder if the Officer Fincher, the Grant Park cop who talked in the article, is still on the force or if he has been re-assigned. Wouldn’t be surprised if they gave him a talking to, either.
January 10th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Let’s not forget just two weeks earlier a 47 year old mother of two small kids, in this case a white female, was shot execution style and left in a car trunk of an abandoned car. A lot of executions going on around Atlanta, except of course, Brian Nichols.
January 10th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Shirley needs to start being held accountable for her little tiff with the city council. Multiple lawsuits filed against her individually should get her attention, from every party damaged due to the cut in police or fire protection. This thug mayor prances around like she thinks she is a queen, instead of an elected official. Its time to take the gloves off and fight fire with fire starting at the top with the mayor.
January 11th, 2009 at 10:52 am
I could care less whether it was intentional or not. The bottom line is these thugs killed him. No politician has the guts to say what the problem is because their 40-50 year social experiment has been an abject failure. You can’t entice & reward illegitimate adults to download illegitimate children. Until this problem is resolved no amount of security or police is going to help. It is the dirty little secret that no one wants to talk about.
January 12th, 2009 at 8:45 am
Thank you, thank you, thank you for reporting on the AJC’s idiocy of its article.
That article was NOTHING other than the author wanting to coddle and protect the criminals. I have no idea how it got past the editors, unless they too are that cruel and protective of the perpetrators that terrorize us.
I was DISGUSTED when I read both it AND its title.
The author was completely biased, and wished only to soften the crime, lessen the anger, and protect the criminals, whose race he refused to identify.
The whole article made me sick to my stomach — as sick as I got when I heard of the crime.
The AJC should be ashamed. The CL should be proud of its gutsy stance in calling them out.
Now tell me: How do you NOT mean to kill someone, if you put him in a room, shut the door, and then fire through it? How is that an accident?
How is it not execution if the bullet passes through a few grains of particleboard before hitting you in the head?
Is there some law that says malicious murder is only from a bullet that does not pass through wood first?
I would say that shutting the door, and then firing through it makes the murder even MORE cowardly and evil. The AJC, however, must believe otherwise. I suppose they are going to ask for a they-didn’t-mean-to-do-it slap-on-the-wrist punishment next.
I have been sickened by their attitude for days, and was very proud to come across your article. Good job.