Confidence betrayed well,
an enraged mother calling for change
after her 15 year old son went from
being a witness in a high profile
shooting to a victim himself.
This happened after his confidential
case statement surfaced on social media
labeling him a snitch and that mother
told our Nate Morabito what happened
next. The events that left her full of
mistrust and she caught it all on camera.
This mom says the justice
system made her son a target.
She told us her speaking up at this point
doesn't put the teenager in anymore danger,
but does have the potential to better
protect other witnesses moving forward.
On fire at a high school
basketball tournament in December,
I start, you know, I'm just booking it.
Sent fans scrambling 2 teens to
the hospital, two others to jail.
We have to show leadership
to our kids and leaders.
Asking more of parents.
But this parent
I just don't have any more. Trust
is now demanding more of the system.
It's been traumatizing.
Danielle Mason says it all started
with a fight involving her son,
which led to shots fired
at the basketball game.
I'm the type person. To cooperate,
she says her 15 year old cooperated
with Salisbury police as a witness,
sharing whatever limited information
he could about the shooting.
They were calling my kid snitches and rats
just months later someone posted on
Instagram his confidential statement
along with the family's address
and other personal information.
They thought that my kids
was the one that identified
them into the shooting,
which that was not never the case.
I was devastated like.
Just really devastated
shortly after his mother says someone fired
a gun into this car with the teen inside
my 4 year old nephew was also in the car.
She does not think this
crime is a coincidence.
Surveillance video shows the Sheriff's
Office eventually knocked on her
door and interviewed her son without
his mother home out of my house.
Mason ended the interview,
he said, saying, why would you in here
talking to him without me being here
as soon as she walked in the door?
Y'all do that. No, you don't.
It's bothersome to me because it illustrates
the the sort of traditional concept.
Tim Emery is a criminal
defense attorney in Charlotte.
He finds the whole situation telling.
Unfortunately police fight
harder for those victims that
they deem worthy. In response
to our questions, the Rowan County
Sheriff's Office defended its
interview of the boy telling us
the same interview practice is
routinely used in a lot of cases
depending on the circumstances.
Particularly in schools,
adding the department is not aware
of any state law that requires a
parent or guardian to be present
for a non custodial interview
of a juvenile witness or victim.
Salisbury police, meanwhile,
said the department followed state
law releasing all information related
to the original basketball shooting
investigation only to the Rowan
County District Attorney's Office.
The DA, as required by law,
then handed over witness identification,
details and statements to
defendants and their attorneys.
As part of discovery,
somewhere along the line,
someone decided to publish those records.
It
shouldn't happen.
I see it increasingly happen in cases,
particularly with young people
being accused because they
live their life so much online.
Emery says there is a way
to better protect witnesses.
The lawyer told us in nearby Mecklenburg
County prosecutors routinely
ask a judge to withhold personal
information other than witness names,
especially when the suspects and.
Witnesses don't know each other well.
It's concerning that there is a
mechanism by which information
sensitive information can be withheld.
If there's reason to have concern
for a victim or a witness's safety,
and it appears that didn't
happen in this case,
they said. So they're self.
Oh, these are bad guys.
OK, well, if they're bad guys,
then why give witness addresses out?
Mason says her kids now live in fear.
I don't want them to be have to feel
like they have to be scared out here.
And she shoulders a growing mistrust.
It makes it hard. It it.
It really makes it hard
of this system.
We ask Rowan County District
Attorney Brandi Cook to respond
to concerns from this case,
but citing state rules,
she told us her office quote cannot
discuss a pending criminal case or
a pending criminal investigation.
Nate Morabito, WCNC Charlotte.