CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Hours before Chris Henry lay dying on a Charlotte street, his fiancee posted happy wedding news on her MySpace page.
Loleini Tonga wrote that the couple bought rings, fitted 15 bridesmaids with dresses and hired a wedding photographer. Her latest post, 1 a.m. Wednesday, is titled “MRS..1…5(ASTERISK)(ASTERISK)(ASTERISK) canT get No betta.”
Henry, a Cincinnati Bengals receiver and father of Tonga’s three children, wore jersey No. 15.
Less than 12 hours later, witnesses describe an unhappy scene of the couple arguing in a pickup truck.
Lee Hardy, 69, says he was trimming the upper branches of a pear tree when he saw a yellow pickup driving too fast down the gravel path by his house. The truck stopped beneath him, says Hardy, who recognized the driver as his friend and neighbor, Tonga, who was arguing with a man in the truck.
The man was in the back of the pickup, pounding on the roof and asking Tonga to get out and talk to him, says Hardy, a retired state employee. Hardy then recalls Henry saying: “If you take off, I will jump out of the truck and kill myself.”
Tonga refused and soon drove away, Hardy says. He then heard what sounded like a car skidding on gravel. Then came the sound of sirens.
Police say Henry, 26, “came out” of the pickup and was found unconscious on Oakdale Road in northern Charlotte. They have refused to elaborate on whether they believe he fell, jumped or was thrown from the truck.
He died Thursday morning after a night in intensive care.
Police say the couple was involved in a domestic situation and are investigating. No charges had been filed late Thursday.
The couple was in Charlotte visiting Tonga’s family and planning their March wedding. Henry was on injured reserve with the Bengals, out much of the season with an arm injury.
Hardy knew Tonga well, he said, watching her grow up in the neighborhood and calling her an achiever in school. Now 25, she graduated from West Charlotte High School in 2002, graduated from N.C. A&T University in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in communications, according to her MySpace page.
Her father is a career military man, Hardy said, and has served overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan. “They’re a beautiful family.”
A man who identified himself as Tonga’s father told the Charlotte Observer she would not be interviewed. “Everyone is focused on Chris,” the man said. “We’re just trying to get through this.”
Henry’s agent, David Lee, phoned the Observer from Carolinas Medical Center and said the couple’s families had no comment. “There’s a lot to deal with,” he said.
Police on Thursday released the tapes of two 911 calls. A woman following the pickup reported a shirtless man standing in the bed of a moving Ford pickup truck, beating on the back window.
“I need a police officer . . .” she said. “It just looks crazy.”
A second motorist reported: “There’s a man in the road. He looks dead. There’s no movement.”
Tonga has no criminal record in North Carolina or Ohio, court records show.
Henry was in his fifth season with the Bengals and was known for his speed and athletic ability — but also for his troubles off the field. He had frequent discipline issues, including 14 games worth of suspensions for violating NFL policy and five arrests during his career.
The Bengals cut Henry from the team last year. An Oct. 17 profile in the Cincinnati Enquirer, quoted a local judge telling Henry during an assault case: “You’ve kind of become a one-man crime wave.”
The charge was later dropped, and Henry set out to redeem himself.
By August 2008, Bengals owner Mike Brown offered Henry another chance. Henry capitalized on it, coaches and associates said in news reports.
Bengals officials Wednesday expressed affection for Henry.
“We knew him in a different way than his public persona,” Brown said during a news conference Thursday. “He had worked through troubles in his life and had seemingly reached the point where everything was going to blossom.”
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