8 Arrested In Beating Death Of 22-Year-Old American Visiting Greece
Eight people have been arrested in Greece, and two of them have been charged with murder, after a young American was beaten to death outside a bar on the island of Zakynthos.
Bakari Henderson, 22, of Austin, Texas, was beaten by a group of at least ten people, according to media reports. He died on Friday, and the arrests were announced over the weekend.
Henderson was a recent graduate of the University of Arizona. One of his friends described him to ABC News as a “peacemaker,” not the type to engage in bar brawls. A neighbor told CBS the same thing, saying a bar fight “just didn’t fit Bakari’s nature.”
“Bakari was in Greece working on a photo shoot to launch his new clothing line when the unbelievable tragedy occurred,” Henderson’s family said in a statement, according to a reporter at KVUE in Austin.
Henderson suffered severe head injuries, and a full autopsy report is expected within the next few days, ABC News reports.
There are conflicting reports about what led to the deadly assault. Athens newspaper Kathimerini, citing an unnamed police source, reports that a fight broke out after a “petty dispute over someone setting their drink down on a table occupied by a different group,” and a group of patrons attacked Henderson.
CBS News, citing witnesses, says Henderson and his friends “wanted to take a photo with the waitress, which angered one of the bouncers.”
“Police say at least 10 people followed Henderson out of the bar, including the bouncer and another employee,” CBS News reports. “They are accused of beating Henderson and leaving him unconscious in the street.”
Two men are charged with murder: A British bouncer of Serbian origin, and a Greek employee of the bar, the Independent reports.
Six Serbian men have also been arrested in connection with the case.
