A Wake County judge on Friday morning ordered the North Carolina State Highway Patrol (SHP) to release body camera footage of a state trooper’s interactions with Tyrone Mason, a Raleigh man who died in a crash on Capital Boulevard in October.
The order comes after unsealed search warrants from the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) detailed suspicious actions of the state trooper, Garrett Macario, and his supervisor, Sgt. Matthew Morrison, following the crash.
Raleigh police told news outlets that Mason, 31, was driving in the early hours of October 7 when he crashed into a concrete barrier. Police said Mason was speeding and lost control of his car.
The SBI search warrants describe Macario’s body camera footage of the events, which apparently show him attempting to pull Mason over and then disengaging. The warrants say Mason crashed after Macario disengaged. Macario then parked nearby, called RPD, Raleigh Fire, and EMS, and then called his supervisor, Morrison.
According to the warrants, Morrison asked Macario if he had called in a vehicle chase over the radio and Macario said he had not.
The warrants state that Morrison told Macario “that the traffic accident was RPD’s problem,” and “not to tell responding Raleigh Police Department Officers that he tried to stop Mason before the traffic accident.”
The warrants go on to say that Macario told an RPD officer who responded to the scene he had not attempted to pull Mason over.
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In January, Wake district attorney Lorrin Freeman viewed Macario’s body camera footage of the crash and then announced she was dismissing roughly 180 pending cases involving Macario and Morrison. The dismissals led to speculation that the crash happened as a result of a chase. Freeman and the SBI are currently investigating the crash.
Macario and Morrison are currently on administrative leave pending criminal and internal investigations into their conduct.
“The release of these videos is necessary. It advances a compelling public interest, namely confidence in law enforcement,” Judge Thomas Currin said on Friday before ordering SHP to release the footage “as soon as possible.”
Currin added that “the public has a compelling right to know” why Freeman dismissed so many cases involving the two officers.
Currin’s order comes after a coalition of news outlets including INDY petitioned SHP to release the body camera footage and the Raleigh Police Department subsequently made its own motion to the same effect.
During Friday’s hearing, Joseph Vellon, a special deputy attorney general, argued on behalf of the SHP that Macario’s body camera footage should not be released publicly until after the internal and criminal investigations of Macario and Morrison are complete.
Currin said the pending investigations do not outweigh the public interest in releasing the footage.
“Especially in this day and age, it is of the utmost importance to instill confidence in the eyes and minds of the public in those public servants who do their job … and for those who do not be held to account,” Currin said.
Macario and Morrison were not present for the virtual hearing.
Freeman was present, and told Currin she has no objection to the footage being released. She added that her office and the SBI will make an announcement about their investigation into Macario and Morrison’s conduct in the coming weeks.
Currin ordered the SHP to release the body camera footage, with graphic images blurred, as soon as possible and no later than four days after the entry of his order.
Chloe Courtney Bohl is a Report for America corps member. Follow her on Bluesky or reach her at [email protected]. Comment on this story at [email protected].