On a Sunday night in April 2014, Leroy Henderson, a 30-year-old Black / African American man who had recently moved to Seattle, Washington, from Gary, Indiana, was walking home from a nearby store in the Skyway neighborhood. It was a routine he was known for, often walking between his home and the Skyway Bowl. But on this particular night, April 27th, his walk was tragically cut short. Around 11:45 p.m., residents in the 12200 block of 68th Avenue South heard multiple gunshots.
When deputies arrived, they found Henderson deceased in the street, having been shot multiple times.
Initially, the killing was a mystery, with no witnesses to the shooting itself. The King County Sheriff's Office sought help from the public to find the person responsible for the seemingly random act of violence. Henderson's family offered a reward for information that could lead to an arrest. The investigation took a significant turn when ballistics from the shell casings found at the scene were linked to other homicides.
The suspect was identified as Ali Muhammad Brown. Investigators discovered that Henderson was the first of four men Brown killed in a spree that extended from Washington to New Jersey. Brown later confessed to the killings, stating they were an act of "vengeance" and a "jihad" against the United States for its foreign policy in the Middle East. He claimed the murders were his "small part" in this perceived war. According to court documents, surveillance video showed an SUV, later linked to Brown, passing Henderson as he walked, then turning around and approaching him with its lights off just before the shooting. Brown admitted to shooting Henderson 10 times in the back. He was eventually arrested in New Jersey and charged with aggravated first-degree murder for Henderson's death and the others. In September 2022, Ali Muhammad Brown was sentenced to 93 years in prison for the murders in Washington, to be served after a life sentence he received for the murder in New Jersey.
