Aaron Hernandez was triggerman in 2007 drive by shooting that left a man with permanent damages, claims victim's family
Aaron Hernandez, the youngest star player of the National Football League (NFL) in 2010, was involved in a "gangland style" drive by shooting, leaving a man with serious head injuries, the victim's family has alleged, claiming that his crime was covered up to save the rising football star, a new book has revealed.
Hernandez was found guilty of first-degree murder in 2015 after he shot and killed Odin Lloyd, the boyfriend of his fiancée’s sister. Two years later, on April 19, 2017, Hernandez was found dead in his prison cell at the age of 27. He had been serving a life sentence when he took his life by hanging himself.
The new book, titled 'Aaron Hernandez’s Killing Fields', by investigative journalist Dyland Howard, has claimed that the former NFL tight-end became involved in a nightclub scuffle that turned violent when he was a student at the University of Florida in Gainesville, 2007.
The book states that Hernandez and some fellow football players allegedly tailed one of the men involved in the fight, Randall Cason, who was traveling in a friend's car when they were shot at.
Cason reportedly told police that Hernandez and another player, Reggie Nelson, approached their car while they were stopped at a light and Hernandez put a handgun through the car's window, opened fire, and fled.
The driver of the vehicle, Corey Smith, was reportedly shot in the head while another person in the car was hit in the arm. Cason, however, was unscathed. The book states that although Cason identified Hernandez, police recorded other witnesses' statements describing a different man, an African American opening fire. Reggie Nelson, was also questioned by the authorities, who identified Hernandez, saying he was in the group that had started the altercation at the nightclub.
Hernandez was then brought in for questioning by police, however, he refused to speak without a lawyer, and agreed to give a statement only after having a consultation with a Florida Gators' lawyer. Gainesville Police Lieutenant Keith Kameg, two days later announced that Hernandez and Nelson were no longer the suspects in the case, according to the book. Cason reportedly also changed his statement, saying Hernandez was not the one who had fired the gun.
Smith, however, suffered permanent damages from the incident, and his family believes that they have been let down by the justice system in the country.
Smith's mother, Sandra Hines, in an interview for the book, said: "We couldn’t find a lawyer, nobody would help us. Not even if we had money to pay them. We were told, like I said, it was him. It was Aaron. Then, all of a sudden it wasn’t Aaron … They let the football players get away with so much and sweep it under the rug, let them get away with it.”