Did NC trooper lie about what he did before fatal Raleigh wreck? What we know.
READ MORE
Investigation into NC troopers after fatal crash
Tyrone Mason, 31, died after his car slammed into a concrete barrier on Capital Boulevard near Wake Forest Road in Raleigh the early hours of Oct. 7. A Highway Patrol trooper, after talking with his supervisor, did not immediately disclose that he had pursued Mason before the crash. Mason’s mother says she was told no officer chased her son before he died. What she learned on her own launched a state investigation into the officers’ behavior.
Expand All
On Friday a judge is scheduled to consider whether police and the public can view video expected to show whether a state trooper told the truth about his role in a fatal Raleigh crash.
On Oct. 7, Tyrone Mason’s 2018 Chevrolet Malibu slammed into a concrete barrier around 2:32 a.m. The 31-year-old was pronounced dead near the crash site on Capital Boulevard, according to a state medical examiner’s report.
Following the crash, State Trooper Garrett Macario denied any involvement, according to search warrants obtained by the State Bureau of Investigation. But Mason’s mother, Henrietta, didn’t believe the trooper’s story. The Durham resident’s quest for answers spurred a state investigation into Macario and his supervisor, Sgt. Matthew Morrison.
The Raleigh Police Department, The News & Observer and other media outlets plan to argue Friday that the footage should be released to bring more transparency to the case, according to court documents.
The North Carolina Highway Patrol, which employs state troopers, objects to the release during an ongoing investigation. Court documents and interviews indicate that the Highway Patrol launched an internal investigation, while the SBI and Wake District Attorney Lorrin Freeman launched a criminal investigation.
Freeman was the first law enforcement official to make public concerns about Macario’s behavior. She did so in January, when she started dismissing nearly 200 traffic cases involving Macario and Morrison.
To explain the dismissals, she included notes about concerns about the troopers’ credibility amid an ongoing investigation. Freeman will not take a position on whether the police videos should be released, she told The News & Observer Thursday.
“I don’t have a basis to object,” she said.
The criminal investigation is nearly done, and Freeman hopes to complete her review of the evidence in the next few weeks. Then her office will determine whether criminal charges will be filed, she said.
Some questions persist on exactly what happened the night Mason died. Here is a timeline of what The News & Observer has confirmed so far with court documents and interviews.
Oct. 7: Just before 2:30 a.m.: Trooper Macario patrolled the area around Capital Boulevard and Wake Forest Road in Raleigh.
Macario’s body-camera footage shows that around 2:30 a.m. he attempted to stop Tyrone Mason’s Chevrolet Malibu for a traffic violation, according to three search warrants sought by the North Carolina SBI. Macario ended his pursuit based on Mason’s driving behavior, the warrants say.
Mason lost control of the Malibu, and crashed into a concrete barrier near the Wake Forest Road overpass. He had a blood alcohol level of .13, which is above the state’s 0.08 limit, according to a state medical examiner’s report.
Macario called in the wreck to emergency officials around 2:32 a.m., according to the warrants.
Also on Oct. 7, around 2:32 a.m.: Macario called his supervisor, Sgt. Morrison, according to the search warrants.
Macario told Morrison about the wreck. Morrison asked Macario if he had reported a “10-43,” the code for a vehicle chase, by radio. Macario said he did not.
“Sgt. Morrison told Trooper Macario that the traffic accident was RPD’s problem,” the warrants state.
“Morrison then told Trooper Macario not to tell responding Raleigh Police Department officers that he tried to stop Mason before the traffic accident,” the warrants state.
Dec. 19: On behalf of Mason’s mother, Henrietta, defense attorney Sean Cecil filed a petition to allow her to review recordings that showed Macario or any other Troopers interacting with her son the night of his death.
Dec. 23: Mason’s mother emailed and then met in person with a State Bureau of Investigation official about her concerns, she said.
Dec. 23: Freeman received a call from the SBI and started to investigate the issue, she said.
Jan. 6: Freeman watched the body-camera footage for the first time, she said. After that, she started dismissing nearly 200 cases involving the officers.
The footage shows that Macario made false and misleading statements to a Raleigh officer, according to Freeman’s explanation on some of the dismissed cases.
Jan. 10: The Highway Patrol put Macario and Morrison on administrative leave.
Jan. 16: A North Carolina State Highway Patrol captain provided SBI Special Agent M. T. Holcomb with Macario’s body camera footage.
Jan. 23: Axios Raleigh was the first to report on Freeman’s office dismissing 180 cases due to concerns about Macario’s credibility.
Jan. 24: Superior Court Judge Clayton Somers issued an order on Mason’s mother’s petition, allowing her and her attorneys to review dashboard and body-worn camera recordings. The order said that the recordings should “be released for use in litigation-related purposes” but couldn’t be shared with others without an order from the court.
Jan. 24: SBI special agent Holcomb executed a search warrant for Morrison’s cell phone calls. The search warrant application indicated the agent was investigating a criminal charge of obstruction of justice.
March 3: Mason’s mother announced that she hired prominent civil rights attorneys Bakari Sellers and Ben Crump to represent her, along with Cecil.
March 18: SBI agent Holcomb files two more search warrants seeking text messages and other content on Macario’s and Morrison’s phone between Oct. 6 and Jan. 30.
April 24: Axios Raleigh, The News & Observer and other outlets filed a petition requesting a judge to approve the release of the State Highway Patrol and RPD’s video footage to the public.
May 7: Raleigh police court filings say the department consents to the release of its video and recording and supports the media’s request for the videos. The release “is necessary to serve a compelling public interest in promoting transparency and accountability surrounding the circumstances that led to those dismissals,” RPD’s filing states.
Raleigh police also sought authority to receive State Highway Patrol recordings. “To date, RPD has not been independently provided with copies of the SHP’s recordings of this incident,” states the filing signed by Senior Associate city Attorney Sherita Walton.
In a statement to The News & Observer, Raleigh police spokesperson LaToya Hughes pointed out that they are responsible for the investigation into the wreck.
“The footage is one of many pieces of information that is needed for the investigation, on behalf of the public and particularly the family,” Hughes wrote in an email.
May 16, 9:30 a.m.: A judge in Wake County Superior Court is scheduled to hear a request from media agencies across the Triangle seeking the release of the recordings to the general public.
Virginia Bridges covers criminal justice in the Triangle and across North Carolina for The News & Observer. Her work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The N&O maintains full editorial control of its journalism.
This story was originally published May 15, 2025 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Did NC trooper lie about what he did before fatal Raleigh wreck? What we know.."
