WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. – A college football player dared a policeman to shoot him after a teammate was fatally wounded by another officer, according to a newly filed police account.
"Come on, shoot me too," Yves Delpeche, 22, shouted before he was subdued with a stun gun, according to the account obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.
Delpeche was among four Pace University students arrested after the killing of Danroy Henry, 20, of Easton, Mass., on Oct. 17. The students are due in court Thursday. Their lawyer is trying to get the charges dismissed.
Officers responding to a disturbance at a bar in a Thornwood, N.Y., shopping center after the Pace homecoming game killed Henry by firing through the windshield of his car.
Police said Henry sped away and hit two officers in the parking lot after another officer knocked on his car window, an account that some witnesses have contradicted. A grand jury investigation is under way.
The four teammates were arrested in the chaos that followed the shooting.
Daniel Parker of Lauderhill, Fla.; Joseph Garcia of Floral Park, N.Y.; and Delpeche, of Brooklyn, N.Y., all 22, are accused of misdemeanors including disorderly conduct and obstruction. Police said they interfered with attempts to provide medical aid to Henry. Joseph Romanick, 21, of Slidell, La., is accused of criminal mischief, a felony, for allegedly breaking a store window.
Defense attorney Bonita Zelman said the charges are an attempt to cover up police brutality. She said Delpeche, Parker and Garcia were attacked by officers while they "were trying to help their friend because nobody else was helping him."
Zelman said the newly filed accounts from Westchester County police Officer Brian Bosan were lies, filed in response to her motion claiming previous documents were insufficient to sustain the charges.
County police Commissioner George Longworth said Bosan's accounts weren't newly prepared.
"The document filed with the court contains the account provided by Officer Bosan in the arrest report he wrote and filed the morning of the incident," Longworth said.
Lucian Chalfen, spokesman for the district attorney's office, would not comment.
Bosan's accounts were filed in support of the misdemeanor charges. He said he ordered Delpeche to stop interfering, but Delpeche "began to swing his arms at the complainant while shouting, 'Come on, shoot me too' and further interfered with efforts to render aid." Bosan said he told Delpeche he was under arrest but Delpeche came at him, so he fired the stun gun.
Bosan also said Parker tried to leave after being arrested and kicked at Bosan during a struggle. He said Garcia ignored repeated instructions to stay away from the spot where Henry was being treated.