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Mom Responds To 'Officer Of Year' Who Shot D.J. Henry

EASTON (CBS) - DJ Henry's mom Angella Henry says she's not surprised Aaron Hess is Pleasantville's "Officer of the Year."

"We've been treated with sense of arrogance and humanity since the day it happened," says Henry.

WBZ-TV's Paul Burton reports

This is how they responded to us, and now, I am thankful people get to peak into what we've had to deal with."

DJ, a Pace University football player from Easton, was shot and killed when Officer Hess fired at his car as he drove away from a bar in October.

Hess has been recovering from a knee injury after being hit by the car DJ was driving.

Last Friday the Pleasantville Benevolent Association awarded him officer of the year.

The union president said they want to "recognize all he went through and for all his hard work."

former Boston Police officer, Tom Nolan, a criminal justice professor at Boston University is stunned by the move to honor the officer.

"This is a disgrace and an outrage," Nolan said.

"To publicly make a commendation like this call into question the wisdom and judgment of the people who made the decision to give this award to this officer under these circumstances."

Angella Henry heard about the award Tuesday night.

"I have nothing to say to Hess. He's spoken loud enough. He's taken our first born child away from us," she said. "If these group of 23 men who have supported him all along can give him any type of award they want to."

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