Dennis “DJ” Hernandez—former football player and convicted murder Aaron Hernandez’s brother—was called “gravely disabled and a danger to society” by police and arrested for a fourth time last week after threatening to kill a woman and planning shootings at the University of Connecticut and Brown University.
Dennis "DJ" Hernandez, brother of former New England Patriots NFL football player Aaron Hernandez, ... [+]
A woman told police Hernandez had threatened to kill her and had driven to Brown and UConn, where he was a student and a football player from 2004 to 2008, to “map the schools out” because he was planning a school shooting, according to a police report.
Hernandez worked at Brown as the quarterbacks coach for its football team in the 2011-12 season, NBC Connecticut reported.
Another woman police talked to and identified as an ex-girlfriend confirmed that Hernandez skipped a July 7 court date to go to the two universities, saying he went “into a number of classrooms and buildings at UConn” and told her he had “a bullet for everyone.”
After the reports Hernandez was acting erratically, police had to use a taser on Hernandez when arresting him on July 19 as he threatened to kill the police if they approached him; CT insider reported he was arrested on charges of second-degree threatening and second-degree breach of peace and is being held on a $250,000 bond.
“UConn program is going to pay unless I have a package deal and I get my estate and every single thing I have worked for,” Hernandez wrote in a text message obtained by police. “… I’m prepared to give my life … not all shootings are bad i’m realizing. Some are necessary for change to happen.”
This was Hernandez’s fourth arrest since May, WFSB reported. He was first arrested in May when he was involved in a police chase, then he was arrested for reportedly throwing a brick through a window at the ESPN headquarters. When he failed to show up for his court appearance in July for that incident, he was rearrested. In the 2000s, Hernandez played football at UConn and was a two-season captain. He coached football and was named head coach of a high school team in Connecticut in 2017—the year his brother, Aaron Hernandez, committed suicide in prison—but resigned in 2018. Aaron Hernandez, who was a star for the New England Patriots before his arrest, was convicted of first-degree murder in 2015 for killing Odin Lloyd, a semi-professional football player, though he was acquitted of killing two other people. DJ Hernandez has published a book called "The Truth About Aaron: My Journey to Understand My Brother."