Share and Follow
The wife of a man tragically killed on a Brooklyn train a year ago expressed her doubts about Gov. Kathy Hochul’s subway safety proposal, mentioning that it would not have prevented her husband’s murder. Since her husband’s unsolved killing, she has avoided using the subway altogether.
Jakeba Dockery, 43, who is mourning the loss of her husband, shared her thoughts with The Post regarding Hochul’s plan to enhance police presence on subways between 9 pm and 2 am, describing it as a positive but limited step.
“[But] that wouldn’t have helped at all because my husband was killed before [9 p.m.]. 24 hours would be a good gesture, that would be even better.”
Her husband, Richard Henderson, 45, a well-loved school crossing guard, lost his life while trying to intervene in a dispute over loud music on a Brooklyn 3 train on Jan. 14, 2024. This incident occurred precisely a year before Hochul introduced the initiative during her “State of the State” address in Albany.
Henderson — who shared three kids and two grandchildren with Dockery — was the first subway murder of 2024, and nine more followed.
“It is sad that my husband is among those 10 people, that’s what breaks my heart even more,” Dockery said Wednesday. “It’s just sad.”
“Everyone is walking around with this angry mood and it hasn’t been good since my husband has been killed,” she added about subway violence.
“It’s gotten worse.”
The family marked the grim one-year anniversary by releasing balloons in front of their Crown Heights home Tuesday.
Since Hendeson’s murder, Dockery refuses to ride the train.
“MTA was my best friend. I used to love the MTA. I really, really did,” Dockery said.
“Everybody just seems angry on the MTA now.”
During her year of grief, she started the nonprofit Richard’s Way — an ode to her husband’s passion for helping children — while waiting for police to catch his murderer.
She’s offering a $10,000 cash reward on the whereabouts of Henderson’s killer.
“It makes me upset that the killer is walking around the whole year without even one lead.”
Dockery also urged Big Apple leaders to increase patrols on the train where her husband was killed.
“If they put more focus on the 3 line and the East New York area alone, that would be a great start,” she said.
“I hope it makes a difference.”