Judge blocks release of body camera footage in fatal Hickory police shooting
A North Carolina judge has barred a mother from sharing video of police killing her son.
Christina Tolley asked Judge Peter Knight on Sept. 22 for permission to share the footage with the press so it could reach the public. Hickory police shot her son, Timothy Setzer, to death when he tried to flee from them in 2023, she claimed in a lawsuit last month.
The city previously claimed that Setzer pulled a gun from his waistband before police shot him.
Tolley hoped to “counter the dispersions cast” in press releases and let the public see for themselves, according to Knight’s order.
But the judge believed that releasing the footage with no limitations would create a “serious threat” to the fair, impartial and orderly administration of justice. He also worried that the “purpose of the release of recordings is to allow the public to determine the facts, without the benefit of other evidence which would be available in a trial setting.”
He still allowed Tolley access to body camera footage.
She and her attorneys may not share it with any “individual or corporate member of the media,” he specified.
In North Carolina, body camera footage is not public record. Anyone seeking its release must petition a judge.
Ryan Oehrli covers criminal justice in the Charlotte region for The Charlotte Observer. His work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The Observer maintains full editorial control of its journalism.