Casey Clark grimaced as he sat down at the witness stand Wednesday, his knee hurting from the shotgun blast he took three years ago — a wound that ended his police career.
In 2022, Clark and his team from the Raleigh police Special Enforcement Unit followed Austin Thompson into thick woods near the Neuse River, trying to stop the shooting spree that had already claimed six victims in Hedingham, five of them fatally.
They followed a K-9 police dog to a hunting blind, over a fence, then to a pair of garage-like buildings when a shot rang out and dropped Clark to the ground…