From [HERE] Family, friends, and the attorney for Stephen Mason are calling on Michigan State Police to release video footage of the fatal May 16 shooting by a state trooper in Detroit, citing conflicting eyewitness accounts and a growing suspicion of a coverup.
They’re also urging state Attorney General Dana Nessel to appoint an independent special prosecutor, saying the state cannot fairly investigate itself.
“The transparency factor is not happening here at all, and that causes a lot of suspicion,” Leonard Mungo, an attorney representing Mason’s family, tells Metro Times. “The family doesn’t deserve to be kept in the dark. All they want is to know the truth.”
Mason, a 41-year-old Highland Park resident known for his gentle demeanor and skilled carpentry work, including building Detroit’s 30-foot Kwanzaa kinara at Campus Martius, was pulled over by a Michigan State Police trooper on May 16 around 7:30 p.m. near the Wyoming exit off the Lodge Freeway.
Police allege Mason fired three shots during a struggle, striking the trooper twice in the vest and once in the shoulder. The trooper returned fire, fatally striking Mason, according to MSP. The officer, who has not been named, was treated and released from a local hospital.
But witnesses say what they saw doesn’t match the official narrative.
One eyewitness, who shared a voice memo with Mason’s family, described a scuffle between the officer and Mason before the trooper stood up, cocked his gun, and fired three shots — two to the body and one to the head.
“I said no way, no way I just seen this officer kill this man,” the witness said. “Regardless of what was going on, that man wasn’t any threat.”
The witness, who was exiting the freeway when she saw the altercation, said Mason was trying to push the officer off him as the trooper reached for his gun.
“He didn’t say he was hit,” the witness said of the trooper. “He didn’t call for backup. He just stepped back to catch his breath.”
In an interview with private investigator Scott Lewis, a second witness, Bobby Ingram, said he came upon Mason’s body moments later, before a large police presence arrived. He said Mason was lying dead in the street with a gunshot wound to the forehead, with no gun in sight.
“I didn’t see a weapon at all,” Ingram said. “I was looking around to see how this man was shot.”
Asked why he came forward, Ingram responded that it was the right thing to do.
“I’m a black male in this city. He lost his life,” Ingram said. “If he lost his life and it wasn’t right, then I think we need to address that because that hurts the family, and more people will lose their lives around here if we don't stand up and make sure it’s known because we aren’t going to tolerate this. It’s not right.”
Detroit police are leading the investigation as part of a joint homicide task force with MSP. But Mungo and Mason’s supporters say the investigation is compromised because both agencies are intertwined, and the Attorney General’s office has taken charging authority away from the county prosecutor in cases involving troopers.
“This family doesn’t want to get caught in the middle of a power struggle between the state and county,” Mungo says. “That’s why we’re asking for someone truly independent. These are sober, reasonable requests to get answers.”
Despite repeated requests, Mungo says the family has yet to receive critical information, including any body camera, dashcam, or freeway surveillance footage. On July 4, MSP released a heavily edited video featuring a so-called witness who backed the trooper’s version of events, but no police footage was disclosed.
“They produce video when it clearly favors the police,” Mungo says. “In this case, they keep it hidden. That heightens the suspicion that this is a coverup.”
Mungo says he filed a public records request with the Michigan State Police and Detroit Police Department and is continuing to press for answers. In the meantime, he says the state’s refusal to release videos is making it harder for the family to grieve and heal.
“If the videos show Stephen was in the wrong, the family can begin the grieving process and get closure,” Mungo says. “But if he wasn’t a threat when he was killed, that’s something else entirely. Either way, the truth is in those tapes.”
Gregory McKenzie, who worked closely with Mason on the construction of the city’s Kwanzaa kinara, says Mason was a kind, gentle person and it’s inconceivable he would shoot a police officer.
“It was very devastating,” McKenzie tells Metro Times. “Witnesses are refuting the official narrative. It sounds like [the official version] is not quite what happened.”
The family is pleading with other potential witnesses to come forward and provide statements to help uncover the truth.
“This is the moment for Attorney General Nessel to show us that her commitment to the Black community goes beyond words,” Mungo says. “Equal access to justice under the law means listening to grieving families and shining a light on the truth.”
