This week in court the details of Mr. Henderson’s death were generally undisputed:

A passerby reported seeing a man walking the street carrying a chain and a knife. When police arrived they found Henderson walking across a field toward an alley. The police yelled at him to put down the knife repeatedly, almost 30 times. Henderson continued walking, spouting vulgarities saying police could not shoot him because they could not see him.

An officer came close to Henderson and shot him in the face with pepper balls but he continued walking away from the police. Then he was shot with a bean bag. Shortly after Henderson made a half turn in the direction of police who were nearly 30 feet or more away from him, a volley of gunfire hit, knocked him against a fence and bounced him back. On the bounceback, a second volley of shots hit him, knocking him to ground where he lay unattended.

When the smoke cleared, 29 shots had been fired; 17 hit Henderson the other 12 went into the house of a neighbor, miraculously missing scores of people who watched the incident from their yards.