OPINION:
Aaron Hernandez, of former NFL fame, killed himself in prison, the Department of Correction reported.
The former New England Patriots tight end was found hanging from a bed sheet attached to his single-cell window in his Souza Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, Mass., shortly after 3 a.m.
What a tragedy. A tragic end to a life that had become a tragedy. The 27-year-old, who was serving a life sentence for murder, had just been acquitted in another case of double murder.
“Hernandez was moved to tears on Friday after he was acquitted of the 2012 fatal shootings of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado in Boston,” ESPN reported. “Just before his acquittal, Hernandez was seen blowing kisses to the little girl he fathered with fiancee Shayanna Jenkins. Cameras captured the tender exchange.”
Despite the acquittal, Hernandez was still serving a life sentence without the possibility for parole for the 2013 shooting death of Odin Lloyd.
His suicide comes as the Patriots were due to visit the White House in recognition of their Super Bowl win.
“We are aware of the reports,” a Patriots spokesman told ESPN. “But I don’t anticipate that we will be commenting today.”
Hernandez was a star athlete whose fall from grace was described, just last week by Patriots coach Bill Belichick, as “tragic.” That’s an understatement.
It was only a year after Hernandez signed a seven-year, $40 million contract extension with the Patriots that he was arrested for Lloyd’s murder.
And this is what a former University of Florida staffer told NFL.com about Hernandez in 2014: “He was really intelligent and that’s why he was such a pain in the [butt]. He knew how to beat the system on everything.”
Not so. His imprisonment and suicide belie that.
Plus, the little girl he fathered is just 4 years old.
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