When the body of semi-professional football player Odin Lloyd was discovered in a Massachusetts industrial park in June 2013, police quickly linked the then-New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez to the murder.
Amid the investigation of Hernandez’s involvement in the Lloyd case, there was also speculation that Hernandez may have played a role in the July 2012 murders of Daniel Jorge Correia de Abreu and Safiro Teixeira Furtado.
Court documents released for the first time on Thursday revealed that Boston police have been investigating whether Hernandez may have pulled the trigger. According to the June 28 police affidavit and search warrant application, “there is…probable cause to believe that Aaron Hernandez was operating the suspect vehicle used in the shooting homicides…and may have been the shooter.”
Although no one has been officially charged with the 2012 drive-by murders of Abreu and Furtado, the newly released documents show that shortly after Hernandez’s arrest in 2013, police received a call from an anonymous tipster, urging them to look into the NFL star’s possible involvement.
Upon further investigation, police recovered what they believe to be the vehicle and weapon involved, in addition to video footage which allegedly shows Hernandez stalking the victims at a nightclub in Boston.
The vehicle, a Toyota 4Runner SUV, was found at the Bristol, Conn. home of Hernandez’s uncle. While the released documents do not reveal specifically what the police found in the vehicle, they provide a timeline of what may have happened the night Abreu and Furtado were killed.
Video footage shows Hernandez and an accomplice, believed to be Alexander Bradley, entering a Boston nightclub directly behind Abreu and Furtado. Shortly after their arrival, Hernandez and Bradley are seen leaving the club and returning to a silver SUV around 1:17am. When the victims leave the club at approximately 2:10 am, outside video shows Hernandez’s silver SUV circling the block.
According to the documents, two men driving in the area told police they saw a silver SUV pull up next the victims’ BMW at a red light. Shots were fired and the SUV sped away. The witnesses described the driver as a Hispanic man with short dark hair. This account matches another one given to police by a passenger riding in the BMW with the victims.
If the assertions made by police turn out to be true, it would mean that Hernandez played the 2012-2013 NFL season after killing two people.
These most recent allegations come in the wake of Hernandez’s arrest for the murder of Odin Lloyd last summer, a charge for which he is currently awaiting trial. Following a year that saw the arrests of more than 40 NFL players, this certainly casts yet another dark shadow over the NFL. Although the NFL’s Personal Conduct Policy states that all persons associated with the league are required to avoid “conduct detrimental to the integrity of and public confidence in the National Football League,” some players have clearly missed the memo. Despite a troublesome year however, the NFL has remained consistent in its discipline of players and coaches alike, with punishments that “may take the form of fines, suspension, or banishment from the League and may include a probationary period and conditions that must be satisfied prior to or following reinstatement.”
Bad publicity aside, the Super Bowl, and the annual media frenzy that surrounds the NFL’s main event, is only weeks away. If the Patriots win on Sunday, Hernandez could find himself watching his former team play on football’s biggest stage.
[Boston Globe] [CNN]
Featured image courtesy of [Aaron Frutman via Flickr]