Sen. Edward Markey’s campaign Monday evening released a statement implicitly acknowledging failure to assist the parents of Danroy “DJ” Henry Jr in investigating the killing of their son by a white police officer in 2010.

Twenty-year-old DJ Henry was shot multiple times by police officer Aaron Hess while in his car unarmed outside a nightclub in Westchester County New York. A grand jury in 2011 declined to indict Hess.

A year later, the Henrys, Dan Sr. and Angella of Easton, Mass., said they requested a meeting with then-Rep. Ed Markey to press him to urge a thorough federal investigation into their son’s death.

Henry Sr. said they met the Massachusetts Democrat at a restaurant, where “he took no notes and asked only one question."

“We felt that we were putting him out while he ate his lunch,” Henry Sr. told WGBH News. “He used the term 'colored' at one point during the conversation, but it’s less about that. It’s much more about a sense that we had that there’s really been no effort to even engage with us around this in any meaningful way.”

Henry said a recent television ad — featuring progressive New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez— hailing Markey as “a stalwart champion for racial justice” triggered memories of that lunch meeting in 2012.

“And I’m struggling trying to reconcile our experience with what that ad says about our Senator,” Henry Sr. told WGBH News.

Henry took to Twitter Monday to air his frustration and disappointment.

Markey in response wrote, “I have reached out to the Henry family to offer my sincerest apologies, and to pledge to them my complete support to take action on this case.”

Markey is in a tight primary race with Rep. Joe Kennedy III to try to hold on to his U.S. Senate seat. Kennedy, said Henry Sr., "has been with us from the beginning."

Markey said he was among the Massachusetts congressional delegation in 2014 that called “on the Department of Justice to open a federal investigation into DJ Henry’s murder.”

Henry Sr. said that may be so, but “as it relates to the Massachusetts delegation, the meeting we had with then-Congressman, now Senator, Markey was the worse.”

Black Lives Matter demonstrations in response to the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota have refocused national attention on the questionable circumstances that led to the killing of DJ Henry. Dozens of celebrities, including Jay Z, Beyoncé and Rihanna, have joined with the Henrys in asking Attorney General William Barr to commence an investigation into the case.

Markey has also pledged support to the Henrys in pursuing justice for their son. “I am fully at their disposal, and hope to work with them,” said Markey in his statement.

The Henrys said they will wait and see what happens.