NC releases footage showing trooper's involvement in deadly crash
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North Carolina state trooper Garrett Macario's body camera footage, showing the scene of a fatal October crash. Screenshot: North Carolina State Highway Patrol
North Carolina's State Highway Patrol released footage Friday showing that just moments before 31-year-old Tyrone Mason died in a single-car crash in October, state trooper Garrett Macario tried to pull him over.
Why it matters: Minutes after the crash, Macario called his supervisor, Sgt. Matthew Morrison, to tell him about the incident.
- "Please tell me you're f---ing joking," Morrison said, Macario's bodycam footage shows.
- At the urging of his supervisor, Macario then lied to Raleigh police officers and said he happened upon the crash, declining to mention that he had chased the driver moments before.
The big picture: The release of the footage, requested by a coalition of media outlets last month, puts to rest questions surrounding the death of Mason, as well as Macario's actions leading up to it.
- The footage's release also comes just days after Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said in a report released Wednesday that she would not pursue charges against Macario or Morrison.
Catch up quick: Freeman, after viewing video footage of the October crash, dismissed around 200 cases in January in which Macario and Morrison were witnesses. Most of the cases involved defendants charged with driving while impaired, Freeman told Axios at the time.
- After reviewing bodycam and dashcam footage related to the crash, Freeman determined Macario's "credibility" was "impaired."
- As a result, she was unwilling to proceed with some cases he was involved in, she said.
Zoom in: Mason was going about 70 mph in a zone with a 40 mph speed limit, Macario told Morrison, but shortly after Macario began trying to pull Mason over, he "realized that it was not a smart chase." Macario then deactivated his lights and slowed down.
- "I had lost sight, and I came around the corner. I saw all the smoke," Macario said in a phone call to Morrison minutes after the crash, Macario's bodycam footage shows.
- "Sounds to me like that's [the Raleigh Police Department's] problem," Morrison said. "I wouldn't mention anything to them about you trying to stop him."
- "That's fatal," Macario told Raleigh police officers who arrived on the scene, though he said he had not yet checked on the driver. "I rolled up on it. He obviously came over the median."
- Raleigh police also released footage related to the incident, after siding with media outlets in their petition.
The intrigue: In her report announcing that she wouldn't charge the troopers, Freeman did, however, express concern about their handling of the case, noting that "Macario did not attempt to make contact or provide care to Mr. Mason."
- She noted that after Macario attempted to pull Mason over, Mason accelerated to an estimated 100 mph, and his blood alcohol was above the legal limit.
- Though Macario did not initially disclose to Raleigh police officers that he had chased the driver, he later told an officer before he left the scene, along with a Raleigh police captain, according to Freeman's report.
- Despite this, the department "continued to provide inaccurate information" about the circumstances surrounding the crash to Mason's mother.
What they're saying: Lawyers representing Mason's family condemned Freeman's decision not to charge the troopers.
- Also on Wednesday, Mason's mother, Henrietta Mason, filed a lawsuit alleging Macario engaged in a "dangerous," "high-speed" chase and covered it up.
- "Before checking on Decedent to determine his condition, Defendant Macario began conspiring with Trooper Morrison to cover up Defendant Macario's role in the accident," the lawsuit states.