What did police do? Protesters demand answers on man’s SEPTA subway track death.

The mass of people blocking Broad Street at Olney Avenue had been there almost an hour Thursday afternoon, shouting to anyone who would listen about the death of 25-year-old Bryant “BJ” Henry before the victim’s mother rose to speak.

For much of the protest, Monica Howard sat on a folding chair at an island in the intersection, hobbled by an injured right foot, while almost 50 people held up signs and chanted, demanding answers from police about her son’s death.

“I lost my best friend,” said Deja Williams, 20, who is three months pregnant with Henry’s child. “I lost my other half.”

She strode the intersection, shrieking, “Justice for BJ,” as tears streaked down her cheeks.

Philadelphia police reported that about 8:30 p.m. on July 24, officers attempted to arrest Henry outside the Olney Transportation Center. He had crack cocaine on him, police said. As officers tried to cuff him, Henry broke free and ran into the SEPTA station and onto a platform on the Broad Street Line. He jumped off the platform onto the tracks and touched the electrified rail there, dying from the 600 volts coursing through the line.

Two witnesses, though, told The Inquirer that the police account left out a critical detail: An officer fired a Taser at Henry while he was on the tracks — which led to his falling on the electrified rail.

>>READ MORE: A man was electrocuted on SEPTA tracks. Witnesses say Philly police Tasered him first.

Police have neither confirmed nor denied the witness accounts, saying an investigation needs to be completed first.

When Howard lifted a bullhorn and addressed the protesters and the dozens of others who watched from the sidewalks, rage and grief shredded her voice. She wanted to know who the officer was who was involved in pursuing her son, and she wants evidence that makes clear how Henry died.

“Maybe he didn’t mean to do it,” she said of the officer. “Maybe it was just a quick reaction. But at the end of the day, he needs to man up."

The department’s homicide unit is investigating the incident, An internal review found no wrongdoing by officers, police have said. The department did not say whether any witnesses who say a Taser was used have come forward.

Police on Thursday declined to identify the officers involved or say whether they were still on active duty. One witness said an officer told her his body camera captured Henry’s death, but the department would not say whether video existed of the incident, and if so, whether it has been reviewed by police.

SEPTA officials have said Henry’s death happened out of sight of the station’s security cameras.

>>READ MORE: Man fleeing police electrocuted on SEPTA tracks

Asa Khalif, a Black Lives Matter activist who helped organize the protest, said family and the community want those answers.

“We want the officer’s name who was involved in the murder,” he said. “We want him off the streets until the investigation is finished. And we want the tapes.”

The Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office has not issued a cause of death. That determination is expected to take 8 to 12 weeks, during which an autopsy and toxicology tests will be performed.

At least a dozen officers blocked traffic at Broad and Olney, and at Broad and Clearview Streets, and gave the demonstration wide latitude. The protesters blocked the path of a SEPTA bus, and even when they began sitting or standing on its front bumper, police only watched. Prior to the demonstration, Khalif said he expected arrests, but officers were nonconfrontational and did little to interfere.

The mood at times turned angry, but at one point, when a group of people began jumping on the bus, causing it to bounce, it was Howard who calmed the crowd. She shouted at them to stop.

“That’s not what this is about,” she said.

Henry was a cheerful young man, his family and friends said, an active party promoter who had recently been selling bottled water near the SEPTA station, taking entrepreneurial advantage of the summer heat. He also had a history of drug-related arrests, though, including one less than a month before his death. His family and friends said he had done nothing that warranted his death.

“I don’t care what he did,” Howard said. “He was a young man trying to find his own way, and at the end of the day, he was such a good person.”

One witness said she saw police destroy the smartphone of a woman who took video of the incident, and Henry’s family wants to know if other video of the encounter is out there. As Howard watched her son’s death cause ripples of fury to course through the intersection, she shifted between a stoic detachment and sorrow.

“It feels like a dream. I really feel like I’m dreaming,” she said. “I just keep thinking, ‘I’m not going to see my son again?’ ”