HENDERSONVILLE – A Henderson County Superior Court judge denied a mother’s request for the release of law enforcement recordings taken at the scene of her son’s shooting death and her own arrest in November 2023. Her charges were later dropped.
Patricia King filed a petition May 29 for the public release of a North Carolina State Highway Patrol trooper’s dash camera footage. The trooper was the first officer to arrive at the Orchard Bar and Grill’s parking lot in Hendersonville after her son, Elijah Timmons III, 30, of Asheville, was fatally shot the night of Nov. 24, 2023, while in a crowd of people.
After a July 10 hearing at the Henderson County Courthouse, Senior Resident Judge Peter Knight denied King’s request. He wrote in an Aug. 13 order that he found the dash camera release does not advance a compelling public interest, is not necessary for any current or potential court proceeding, and the release might harm the reputation or jeopardize the safety of people seen in the recording. King herself was in the video, which Knight acknowledged in the order but said was not told to him in the petition or the hearing…