Dennis “DJ” Hernandez, the older brother of late NFL player and convicted murderer Aaron Hernandez, was arrested for the fourth time this year.
Police allege that DJ Hernandez was planning school shootings at the University of Connecticut and Brown University in Rhode Island, according to an arrest warrant obtained by WFSB in Connecticut.
Hernandez was charged with threatening. Police said in the warrant that multiple people have told them they are concerned about Hernandez’s deteriorating mental health.
In social media posts, Hernandez made several troubling statements cited in the arrest warrant, including, “Will I kill? Absolutely, I’ve warned my enemies to pay up front.”
He also allegedly wrote, “I’m prepared to give my life so if I don’t get to see you on the outside know I love you always. Not all shootings are bad I’m realizing. Some are necessary for change to happen.”
An ex-girlfriend told police in Bristol, Conn., that Hernandez drove to each university to map the campuses out, and she believed that he was planning school shootings.
“The UConn Police Department was aware of initial information related to the subsequent arrest of Dennis Hernandez by the Bristol Police Department,” a UConn spokesperson said in a statement to multiple outlets. “Police departments evaluate threats for credibility and imminences and the necessary resources are deployed to address the threat. At the time, there was no known imminent threat to UConn. The Bristol Police Department located Hernandez and took him into custody a short time later.”
Hernandez is a native of Bristol and played football at UConn.
Another one of his arrests this year came after he threw a brick with a hand-written note at ESPN’s headquarters in Bristol.
Aaron Hernandez was arrested in 2013 and later convicted of the murder of Odin Lloyd. He died by suicide in his prison cell in 2017.
–Field Level Media