The Radiant One
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As a locum tenens physician, Henry would work in emergency rooms around the region, placed where he was needed.
Henry worked as a pediatrician in the Jefferson Washington Township (New Jersey) Hospital Emergency Department from 2019 to June 2022. “We extend our sympathies to Dr. Henry’s family and friends in light of this tragic loss,” said Nicole Pensiero, spokesperson for Jefferson Health in New Jersey.
Henry earned his medical degree from the SUNY Upstate College of Medicine in Syracuse in 1987. He completed his residency at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and was board certified in pediatrics.
“He took care of a lot of my patients,” said Dr. Jeffrey Karasik, a pediatrician and president of Clarkstown Pediatrics. “He was a wonderful ER doctor. His death was a shock. He was a great colleague.”
Joyce Platt worked as a per diem nurse with Henry at Montefiore Nyack Hospital from 2003 to 2018. She and pediatric ER staff frequently get together, and Henry would join when he could. She said he was generous. “He would usually pay for everyone,” Platt said. “If we tried to pay, he would take the check.”
Platt said Henry recently told her that he was working at Children’s Hospital New Orleans, flying down one week a month, and he would see his mom, who was living there and was about to turn 100. The family was originally from Jamaica.
“His birthday was Christmas Eve, which was the next day after that happened,” Platt said of the early-morning attack near 120th Street, “which made it even worse.”
'He didn't deserve what he got'
Henry lived in the Spuyten Duyvil section of the Bronx, in a high-rise that sits by the Hudson.He was attacked inside Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem in the early hours of Dec. 23. He suffered numerous stab wounds.
New York City Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said police linked the attack against Henry to a Dec. 19 knife slaying in the East Village and a string of assaults in the city.
The suspect in the slaying was arrested while driving the doctor’s black Mercedes Benz some 12 hours after Henry’s body was found.
Roland Codrington, 35, has been charged with two murders and multiple other charges related to the string of attacks, according to the NYPD.
Police have said the stabbing victims seemed to have no prior connection to the suspect, nor to each other. Law enforcement had already been seeking the suspect in connection with the first homicide and other attacks. They then saw video of the suspect and his girlfriend getting into the doctor’s car.
“For whatever reason he was in the park at that time and he didn’t deserve what he got,” said Chief of Detectives James Essig said Monday about Henry.
Katz said that ER doctors work shifts that can go from noon to midnight or 2 p.m. to 2 a.m., so she added it wouldn’t be unusual for Henry or any other emergency provider to be out at that time. “We really get off work at weird hours," Katz said.
The circumstances, Katz said, remain disturbing. Henry had saved so many with his skills in addressing traumas, and then he was killed this way, left alone.
“It’s such a gory death for someone who was very kind, nonconfrontational, pretty much laughed through everything,” she said. "He was a totally peaceful person.”
