The widow of Richard Henderson, who was tragically shot on a Brooklyn subway train, plans to sue the MTA for illegally leaking crime scene images of her husband.
Jakeba Dockery filed a $28.5 million notice of claim on Friday, alleging MTA staff of photographing Henderson’s body in a pool of blood on a Manhattan-bound no. 3 train before his hospital death on January 14.
Vanessa Bryant filed a lawsuit over leaked images of Kobe Bryant with their kid, as reported by the New York Post.
“It makes my heart drop,” Dockery told The Post after viewing photographs of her fatally wounded hubby. “I can’t believe my husband’s gone. “Seeing him in his own blood hurts me.”
Henderson, a Crown Heights resident with three children and two grandchildren with Dockery, passed away while attempting to interfere in a fight about loud music between his killer and another individual. He was shot in the back and shoulder by an assailant who is still at large.
Dockery learnt via a friend that crime scene images of her husband were being shared on social media. This information was included in the notice of claim, indicating her intention to sue the MTA.
According to the notice of claim, a 10-year Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) employee has been accused of exchanging crime-scene images of Henderson with a buddy.An MTA colleague apparently sent the employee the photos.
Dockery plans to sue the transportation agency for $28.5 million, following Bryant’s successful lawsuit in 2023 over leaked images of her late husband and daughter Gianna.
According to Dockery’s notice, an MTA employee reportedly photographed Henderson while he was alive and laying in a pool of blood for no legitimate governmental purpose. Dockery told The Post that she received one of these images of her late spouse the day after he died.
She saw the violent image on someone’s Instagram story and heard about it appearing on another person’s Facebook account. Henderson and Dockery have been together for 30 years and married for 20.
“I was devastated,” said Dockery, a case manager for veterans. “He’s a hero, and the image of him on the floor with blood circulating — it was not good for me to see and for my children to see.”
The widow stated that the gruesome photographs have left a lasting scar on her, as her husband worked as a crossing guard for a Chelsea private school for a decade and would soon have a street named after him.
Dockery revealed that their three children, ages 15, 20, and 25, had been exposed to the disturbing photographs on social media.
“It was hard to explain their father on the train with his own blood,” she said.
She revealed that her 20-year-old daughter is forced to travel the No. 3 train every day for school. Dockery also expressed concern that Henderson may have been alive while bleeding on the ground, given he was not pronounced dead until he arrived at the hospital.
“When I got the death certificate, [it said] he died in the hospital,” Dockery was quoted as saying. “My husband was still alive when he lay on the ground.
“He heard what was going on around him,” stated the woman. “They provided no assistance. Instead, they took a photo of him.
The legal notification accuses the MTA of carelessness for not having a policy or procedure in place for the treatment of human remains. It also claims that the MTA neglected to thoroughly investigate and penalize the employees who took and shared the images.