Mother Of Tyrone Mason Fights To Uncovers Truth Behind Son’s Fatal Crash with North Carolina Troopers

Henrietta Mason, a mother from Durham, North Carolina, never believed the police’s initial claim that her son Tyrone Mason died in a single-car crash without a chase. On October 7, 2024, two Raleigh police officers told her that her 31-year-old son had died after crashing his Chevrolet Malibu on Capital Boulevard. But Mason immediately suspected a cover-up. “He’s always had that anxiety,” she said, noting Tyrone’s fear of police sirens. Despite officials denying a pursuit, she kept pushing. “I kept running into a brick wall,” she recalled. Her persistence eventually led to a criminal investigation into two North Carolina State Troopers—Garrett Macario and his supervisor Matthew Morrison—who are now on administrative leave.

Search warrants later revealed that Trooper Macario’s claim of discovering the crash incidentally was false. Body-camera footage showed that he had attempted to stop Tyrone and then contacted his supervisor, who advised him to stay silent. “Sgt. Morrison told Trooper Macario that the traffic accident was RPD’s problem,” the warrants said.

Grieving and determined, Mason launched her own investigation. She and her children canvassed businesses near the crash site looking for video footage. In November, a man named James Jaime told Tyrone’s girlfriend that he witnessed the chase and heard police sirens just before the crash. “They chased that boy,” he told her. Mason brought Jaime to the Raleigh police, but nothing changed until months later when the State Bureau of Investigation got involved after she emailed them. “Yes, ma’am,” Mason said when asked to come in. For the first time, she felt heard.

With the help of attorney Sean Cecil and later, civil rights attorneys Bakari Sellers and Ben Crump, Mason fought for the release of police video. On Jan. 31, she and her children viewed the footage. “It was horrible,” she said. A Wake County judge has now ordered that all video be made public. “If I didn’t know my child and know that something wasn’t right from the beginning, they would have gotten away with it,” Mason said. She hopes her son’s case sparks a larger conversation about truth and transparency. “I want the world to know this is what goes on.”

Link: News & Observer