IN THE MONTHS leading up to a fatal double shooting, Aaron Hernandez had become increasingly convinced that people had been “testing, trying or otherwise disrespecting him” when he went to nightclubs, prosecutors said.
When a man bumped into Hernandez while dancing, spilling his drink, that may have been the last straw. Authorities say the former New England Patriots star followed the man and his friends, then opened fire on their car, killing two men and wounding a third.
“I think I got one in the head and one in the chest,” Hernandez said to a friend as they raced from the intersection where the victims were shot while they sat in their car at a stop light, prosecutors said at the former tight end’s arraignment.
Hernandez, already charged with killing another man last year, pleaded not guilty yesterday to seven charges — including two counts of first-degree murder — in the 2012 shooting that killed Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado.
The night de Abreu and Furtado were killed, Suffolk County First Assistant District Attorney Patrick Haggan said Hernandez and a friend drove from Connecticut to a Boston nightclub called Cure. They were standing at the edge of the dance floor when de Abreu accidentally bumped into Hernandez, smiled at him and did not apologise, according to prosecutors. Haggan said de Abreu and his friends did not appear to recognise Hernandez and had no idea he was upset.
Hernandez became increasingly agitated and told his friend that de Abreu had deliberately bumped into him and “was trying him,” Haggan said.
Hernandez and his friend then went to another nightclub, where Hernandez thought he saw de Abreu and his friends come in, according to Haggan.
Hernandez then told his friend he believed he was “being targeted and being disrespected,” Haggan said. In fact, de Abreu and his friends had not left the other club.
Haggan said Hernandez later drove around with his friend until he saw de Abreu, Furtado and others going to their car, then followed them and pulled up alongside their car at a red light.
Hernandez leaned out the driver’s side, said “Yo, what’s up now,” followed by a racial slur, then fired at least five shots into the car, killing de Abreu and Furtado, and injuring a man sitting in the back seat, Haggan said.
Hernandez’s attorney, Charles Rankin, objected to the description, saying the prosecutor’s account of the shooting was an attempt to poison the jury pool. Clerk Magistrate Gary Wilson dismissed the objection, saying it is standard procedure for prosecutors to describe evidence during arraignments in murder cases.
Family members of the victims filled four rows in the courtroom. One woman sobbed loudly as Hernandez entered his not guilty pleas.
De Abreu and Furtado were close friends who attended school and served in the military together in Cape Verde before coming to the United States, according to the attorney who represents their families in a $6 million civil suit against Hernandez.
The two men were shot about six weeks before Hernandez signed a five-year, $40 million contract with the Patriots. He went on to catch 51 passes and score five touchdowns that season, his last in the NFL.
Hernandez’s lawyers have said he is looking forward to proving his innocence.
