More on the Standard murder
January 7th, 2009 by Cliff Bostock in News, Restaurants
WGLC-TV has posted this photograph of John Henderson, the 27-year-old employee of the Standard who was murdered early this morning, on its website. (The Channel 46 site also includes video about the murder.)
Although I’m a regular at the restaurant, I couldn’t place the victim’s name and face — probably because I didn’t want to believe it was someone I knew. I’m sickened to see that he was one of our regular servers, a very funny and personable kid, with a slightly edgy manner about him.
I cannot imagine what kind of person would kill someone so brutally — firing a gun at him four times — after he’d already been given the money he was after. It is especially vile to see someone so young murdered.
A memorial fund has been established, according to Channel 46:
Donations may be made in two ways to the John Henderson Memorial Fund. You can donate online at www.grantpark.org and follow the link to make a donation via credit card or by mail to the Grant Park Neighborhood Association, P.O. Box 89235, Atlanta, GA 30312 to make a donation via check.
January 7th, 2009 at 11:14 pm
Cliff, as you can imagine this terrible event opens and old wound for me, I still think about how senseless it was for Christian Henderson to be killed at Iris that horrible March night. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone who was touched by this recent and unfortunately too common occurrence.
Nic
January 8th, 2009 at 12:37 am
He waited on me Tuesday night; he was such a pleasure, he was so at ease and upbeat. It’s hard to imagine that just hours later he was killed in such a cowardly way and for what? No doubt that crime has reason dramatically in this economical decline. but murder? really? taking a life? why?
January 8th, 2009 at 1:27 am
This hits really close to home. I worked next door to a bar where John used to work and spent much time listening to his hilarious yet accurate observations of the people around him. I always loved seeing him and am so sickened by this. All day the only thing I’ve been able to think about is what those last moments must have been like for him and I am so sad that he died this way.
John’s death is a clear and loud call for business owners, community leaders and local police to come together to find creative solutions to prevent another tragedy like this. Local patrol at the most vulnerable closing hours, private security for just a few hours a night, panic buttons… to not take action would be not only irresponsible but inhuman.
I’m so sad for the community of people including patrons, bartenders, servers who got to enjoy him for his short time here. I just can’t understand this.
January 8th, 2009 at 11:10 am
It is a tragedy that some value life so little. My thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends.
One would think that it would be helpful for restaurants in higher risk areas to have digital witness or some other surveillance to reduce exposure and if there are repeat crimes the offenders could be more easily identified and captured. Just a thought that might help future tragedys such as this.
January 9th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Like many others, I also spent a recent saturday afternoon at the bar with John making his profession look easy and fun. I am so disturbed at this event that I am at a loss for words and I worry about all of the great people serving the downtown area who make its nightlife so fun and ecclectic.
I hope something comes out of this needless loss.
January 9th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
I feel compelled to comment on this story not because I knew John Henderson or ever ate at the Standard but because this story hurts so much for other reasons.
First of all, I am a resident of Little 5 Points and am increasingly aware of similar increases in violence in my own intown neighborhood. More importantly though I am a person who loves to go out to restaurants and pubs to share food, drinks and laughs with people that I care about. There is something sacrilegious about this crime that terrifies me and makes me angry, as though someone was murdered in a church.
I don’t say this to be trite. I have a great deal of respect for religions and their adherents. Rather, I wish to say that restaurants where working people come together to spend meaningful moments with each other have a kind of religious, or spiritual significance to me, and others I think. We are welcomed as guests into these places and we respect the people who serve us, partially because many of us have held jobs in restaurants ourselves and partially because our servers take such central roles in the rituals associated with dining out. These rituals are important. We need these exchanges, if only to serve as breaks from the drabness of convenience stores, strip malls and the impersonal Office Space style interactions that make up the workaday world.
I think what’s particularly shocking in this case is that the common mental image most of us have of ambient casual dining was so completely subverted by the crime itself. The men who murdered John entered the establishment, after hours, by breaking through the glass door with a rock. After they got the money they were looking for they killed him. Even if, like me, you’ve never been to the Standard it isn’t hard to imagine your own favorite eatery entered and defiled in this way, with shattered glass and blood on the floor. It’s not hard to imagine your server or your friend slain in this manner. It seems so close to home.
All this is not to say that the crime would be less senseless or unjust if it had happened in a different locale. Murder is wrong no matter where it happens or who it happens to. But for a man to die after spending a long night offering some food and warmth to people who just want to feel human for a little bit? It’s so unfair.
January 11th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
i was just thinking about how it’s these types of criminals who are taking away our freedom and liberites. i am still so pissed and sick about this. i hope for john’s family these men (boys?) are found, tried and convicted even though nothing can ever heal that kind of wound.