Bengals Henry dead at 26 after fall from truck

Publish date: 2024-05-07

FAMILY MATTERS: Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry, who died yesterday at 26, poses with his fiancée, Loleini Tonga, and their children, DeMarcus, Seini and Chris Jr., in September. AP/The Cincinnati Enquirer

The troubled life of Bengals receiver Chris Henry came to a tragic end yesterday morning in North Carolina.

Henry, 26, died at 6:36 a.m. He had fallen out of the back of a moving pickup truck Wednesday afternoon during what police described as a domestic dispute with his fiancée.

Police said the dispute began a half-mile from the accident scene. Henry jumped into the back of the truck as his fiancée drove away. Police were not sure what caused him to fall from the truck.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police released two 911 tapes late yesterday. The first was from an unidentified woman who reported following a yellow pickup truck with a shirtless man in the back of it.

“It’s got a black man on it with no shirt on, and he’s got his arm in a cast and black pants on,” the woman told the dispatcher. “He’s beating on the back of this truck window. . . . I don’t know if he’s trying to break in or something. It just looks crazy. It’s a girl driving it.”

The second tape was from a man who saw Henry’s body on the road. Henry was rushed to the hospital minutes later, but he could not recover from head injuries he had sustained.

Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer broke the news to his teammates shortly before the team’s morning walkthrough.

“I just want to say it’s a very sad day for our team, for our organization, for Bengal fans,” Palmer said. “Chris was a guy that I believe and our team believes was heavily misunderstood. There was a lot of speculation about who he was, but the only guys that knew Chris and knew how good of a heart he had, how kind he was, how gentle he was, how soft of a heart he had, were the guys in our locker room, the guys who were close to him, his family.”

The Bengals will wear helmet stickers with Henry’s No. 15 for Sunday’s game against the Chargers.

Henry, whose season ended when he broke his left arm in a game against the Ravens on Nov. 8, was in North Carolina planning his wedding to Loleini Tonga, with whom he had three children.

Authorities have not announced the cause of death. Mecklenburg County medical examiner investigator Carol Cormier said they were expecting to receive the body last night.

Henry had gotten into trouble since his time at West Virginia University, where he was suspended for a time. Those problems continued after he joined the Bengals in 2005. The NFL suspended him five times, including for half of the 2007 season after several arrests on charges ranging from weapons to drug possession.

The Bengals released him 2008 after his fifth arrest, but reconsidered and brought him back. He appeared to have turned his life around this year and avoided trouble.

Players around the NFL sent condolences to his family and expressed their sadness.

“I also hope that with really tragic circumstances, people realize that your actions have real consequences,” Jets kicker Jay Feely said. “If you live on the edge of destruction, at some point, that’s where it’s going to lead you. Even if you didn’t do anything wrong — this time. If you live on that cliff at some point you are going to fall off.”

Additional reporting by Kevin
Kernan and The Associated Press

brian.costello@nypost.com

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