‘Devastated’ widow says MTA workers shared photos of murdered husband

The morning after her husband was shot while trying to break up a fight on the subway, Jakeba Dockery was sitting at home in Brooklyn, still in shock, when she received a text from a family friend.

Did she know that photos of her husband’s crime scene had been posted online?

The photos showed Mrs Dockery’s husband, Richard Henderson, lying on the floor of the No. 3 train in a pool of his own blood. They were taken on January 14, after Mr Henderson was shot in the back and neck while waiting for emergency medical services to arrive.

The photos circulated on social media and were spread via text messages when an old neighbor of Mr. Henderson received them from his stepfather, who works for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and who did not know the two men were friends. That neighbor then texted Ms Dockery to tell her the photos were being shared widely.

Around the same time, Ms. Dockery’s son and daughter opened Instagram and saw their father’s photos.

“I was hurt, just devastated,” Ms. Dockery said in an interview. “Seeing that photo confirmed that he will never come home.”

The photos were taken and shared by MTA employees, Ms. Dockery and her lawyers said in a claim they filed against the authority, the City of New York and New York City Transit, the MTA subsidiary that operates the subway. The notice is the first step in filing a lawsuit against a city agency.

The claim involves six unidentified “John Does” who Ms. Dockery’s lawyers say are MTA employees who took or shared the photos. Kamika Henderson, Mr. Henderson’s sister, said in an interview that the family had a number of friends and relatives who worked at the MTA and referred them to the chain of custody of the photos.

An internal document written by Richard A. Davey, the president of New York City Transit, and included in part in the filing, acknowledged that “individuals may have shared images and videos on social media accounts of the aftermath” of the shooting.

The document also suggests that staff members may have shared or attempted to share footage of the aftermath of a teen who died while surfing on the subway and of an apparent suicide at Grand Central Terminal.

The MTA is conducting an internal investigation to determine whether employees took and shared Mr. Henderson’s photos, Janno Lieber, the authority’s chairman and CEO, said at a news conference Tuesday.

“If MTA personnel were involved in distributing a photo or taking a photo and sending it to others and posting it on the Internet, that is a heartless act,” Mr. Lieber said. “I just want to be clear: That is not something that MTA staffers should be doing.”

The person who shot Mr. Henderson remains at large two months later. Sanford Rubenstein, one of Ms. Dockery’s lawyers, said he hoped renewed public interest in the case would lead to an arrest.

Mr. Henderson was a beloved crossing guard at a private school in Manhattan for more than a decade. A fundraising page for his family said he loved his job because it reflected his desire to protect those around him.

The page described his life as “a mosaic of selflessness and dedication.” Donors fondly remembered a man they called “Richie,” who said he always greeted students and their parents with a smile.

“My husband was a hero,” Mrs Dockery said. “A photo like that should not be taken of him in that state.”

Ms. Dockery’s lawyers have modeled their case on a lawsuit filed in 2020 by Kobe Bryant’s widow, Vanessa Bryant. She received $28.85 million from Los Angeles County last year after authorities there were found guilty of taking and sharing photos of her husband and their daughter after they died in a helicopter crash. If Ms. Dockery’s lawsuit goes forward, her lawyers plan to seek the same amount of damages, Mr. Rubenstein said.

A lawyer for Chris Chester, whose wife and daughter died in the same helicopter crash and who filed the lawsuit with Ms. Bryant, said he thought Ms. Dockery had a strong case.

The attorney, Jerry Jackson, said that while the Los Angeles case was considered one of the first of its kind, similar cases have followed.

“With the overwhelming abundance of cell phones and the lustful interest everyone takes in the affairs of others, this is just the tip of the iceberg,” Mr. Jackson said.

Ms. Dockery’s attorneys allege that MTA officers, by taking photographs of Mr. Henderson, violated a right to privacy set forth in New York’s Civil Rights Law, which prohibits the use of the names and photographs of living people without their consent. The law appears to only apply to photos used for commercial gain, and it is not immediately clear whether those involved have profited from Mr. Henderson’s photos.

Mr. Henderson was on his way home when the fight broke out and was shot as the train approached the Rockaway Avenue stop in Brownsville, Brooklyn, police said. Mrs Dockery, who described her husband as “a peacemaker”, said she was told he had intervened out of concern for a mother and child sitting nearby.

“For 30 years I have been telling him not to intervene in certain situations, but his heart told him otherwise,” she said.

Ms Dockery said that since Mr Henderson’s death, she and her family have struggled to “maneuver around” with so much still unknown.

They fear Mr. Henderson’s killer is still out there somewhere. Her daughter Lavina, 20, who used to ride the No. 3 train every day, now avoids it.

They also want to know why the train continued to run for a number of stops after the shooting. Mr. Henderson’s sister noted that in the photo she saw of her brother, the blood around him is undisturbed, indicating that no one tried to help him before authorities responded.

“He shouldn’t have ridden the train six stops after being shot while lying in a pool of blood,” Ms Henderson said.

But worst of all, Mrs Dockery said, is the fact that her husband’s death certificate states he died in hospital, meaning he may have been aware the photos were being taken.

“He was still alive on the train,” she said. “That hurt, that no help was provided to my husband. There was no protocol. It was just: ‘lights, camera, action.’”