American Sports Story depicts Aaron Hernandez shooting Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado in Episode 6, “Herald Street.” But that is the show’s version of events, not a fact established in court: Hernandez was acquitted of their killings, and the jury did not find the prosecution’s case proven beyond a reasonable doubt. The episode also builds a personal storyline around Chris, a fictional character, and dramatizes scenes that should not be treated as a record of Hernandez’s private life.
What happens in Episode 6, and what the court decided
In its October 15, 2024 recap, The Boston Globe describes Episode 6 as opening with Hernandez and Chris in Cabo. After their relationship ends, Hernandez calls Alexander Bradley, whom the show calls “Sherrod.” The story then depicts a nightclub encounter followed by Hernandez firing into a car carrying two men.
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The men were Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, who were killed in Boston in 2012. Hernandez was charged with their murders and later acquitted. At trial, Bradley testified that Hernandez fired five shots; that was testimony, not a jury finding. The jury did not find Hernandez guilty, so the episode’s decisive depiction of him as the shooter goes beyond what the verdict established. The Globe’s recap reports the episode and the trial outcome; neither the accusation nor the dramatization should be mistaken for a proven account of the killings.
Which parts of the episode are fictionalized?
Chris and the Cabo relationship
The Globe identifies Chris as a made-up character introduced earlier in the series. The Cabo trip, breakup, private conversations, and emotional framing around the relationship belong to the scripted narrative. They are not independent evidence about Hernandez’s biography or motive.
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Dialogue and scene details
In a separate October 15, 2024 report on the production, The Boston Globe says much of the dialogue and some characters were imagined or invented. Unless a scene is independently documented, treat its private exchanges and precise mechanics as dramatic reconstruction rather than a transcript of history.
Boston recreated in New Jersey
The series was shot almost entirely in New Jersey, with Newark standing in for Boston, according to the Globe’s production report. Producer Tyson Bidner acknowledged the substitution: “Is Newark Boston? No,” he said. “But are there bones of these cities that work? Yes.” The setting is a production choice, not evidence that the depicted events happened exactly as staged.
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How the show uses CTE—and what that does not prove
Episode 6 brings Junior Seau’s death into the story and introduces chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) as context. The Globe’s recap notes that posthumous testing found severe CTE in Hernandez’s brain. That medical finding does not establish why the Boston killings occurred, prove that CTE caused them, or determine legal responsibility. Reporting has included differing expert views, and a diagnosis alone cannot settle motive or causation.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Bradley’s alleged shooting is a separate case
The episode’s references to Bradley should not blur two different events. The Boston double-murder trial concerned de Abreu and Furtado; Bradley’s account of a later, alleged 2013 shooting in Florida is a separate matter. In its 2018 Spotlight investigation, The Boston Globe reports Bradley said Hernandez shot him, leaving him without an eye, and later threatened him. No charges were filed in that shooting, according to the reporting. It should therefore be described as Bradley’s allegation, not as a conviction or established finding—and it does not change the verdict in the Boston case.
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A reliable way to read the episode against the record
- Verdict versus accusation: Hernandez was acquitted of the Boston killings; Bradley’s testimony that Hernandez fired was contested testimony, not a jury finding.
- Documented person versus fiction: Chris is a fictional character, so the relationship plot is not biographical evidence.
- Reported event versus scripted scene: The series invents dialogue and characters and recreates its locations. A vivid scene is not, by itself, proof of how an event unfolded.
- Medical finding versus explanation: The reported CTE diagnosis is relevant context, but does not prove a causal explanation for the killings.
- Separate allegations, separate outcomes: Bradley’s account of the Florida shooting has its own unresolved legal status in the cited reporting and must not be folded into the Boston verdict.
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