‘So troubling.’ 21-year-old fatally shot by trooper is mourned by brother, teacher
At the viewing of Mark Anthony Diaz, Rahkie Mateen mourned the 21-year-old whom she had taught for four years at Jordan-Matthews High School and another two at Chatham Middle School.
Four days earlier on Memorial Day, a North Carolina State Highway Patrol trooper fatally shot Diaz, who was armed, at a traffic stop in Siler City.
Mixed with the pain of that loss was the unfortunate coincidence that she also knows the law enforcement officer who killed her former student.
“This event is so troubling because I knew them both,” said Mateen, 47, in a phone interview with The News & Observer.
Diaz, who lived in the town of Staley in Randolph County, is the seventh and latest person to be shot by law enforcement in the Triangle this year. Six of the people have been killed.
On May 30, about 4:35 p.m., Trooper Rodney N. Cook, 41, shot Diaz once, but fatally, after stopping him for a seatbelt violation.
The shooting occurred in a neighborhood off of U.S. 64 moments after Diaz pulled out a pistol when Cook asked him to step out of the vehicle.
Dashboard camera footage of the Chatham County shooting released Tuesday shows the brief interactions between Cook and Diaz that preceded Cook retreating to his vehicle. Diaz is then seen stepping out of the truck with a gun in his left hand. Cook quickly unholstered his gun and fired.
The car, which remained in drive when Diaz stepped out, rolled forward and crashed into a parked car, according to the video, prompting a passenger to sprint out of the car and away from the scene. The video showed Cook approaching Diaz with his weapon drawn, instructing him to let go of the gun. He manually disarmed Diaz while he was still on the ground and began providing CPR.
An anime fan, laidback student
Mateen and Moises Diaz, Mark’s older brother, said they never would have imagined Mark would be in such a situation. Moises Diaz told The News & Observer Friday that he did not know his brother to be a gun owner.
Mateen, who taught visual arts and technical theatre, said Mark was a “laidback” student who never got into trouble.
“Of all the students I have taught — I met upwards of 2,000, 3,000 over eight years — Mark is in the bottom five students that I would have thought would have been dead,” said Mateen, who sobbed talking about him.
Moises Diaz said he believes his younger brother made a mistake in pulling out a weapon.
“They were going to search his car,” said Diaz, 25. “I think he just got scared.”
Dialogue in the video shows Diaz failed to provide his license when asked and that Cook suspected that marijuana was in the truck.
Moises and his brother were born in Lumberton to Mexican parents who immigrated from the state of Veracruz, he said.
When his brother got pulled over, he was on his way to a friend’s house to watch anime on TV, which he was a huge fan of, Diaz said.
His parents are devastated, he said.
“If my brother did aim the gun at him with bad intentions, then at least they could have disarmed him, or tried their best to detain him,” said Diaz. “But then again, it was in the heat of the moment.”
Still, he said, he feels like law enforcement is “too trigger-happy nowadays.”
The gunshot that Monday afternoon was heard down the street in the backyard of Mateen’s house in the Harmony Hills neighborhood.
Mateen and her son watched Cook perform CPR on Diaz, she says, which is seen in the video of the incident.
She immediately knew the trooper involved in the shooting when she saw the burgundy Dodge Charger, which Cook is known to drive, she said.
‘Unfortunate’ event
Mateen says she’s known Cook for around 15 years. She previously worked alongside him as a volunteer firefighter in Siler City, and Cook and her husband are friends.
Cook remains on administrative duty during an internal investigation. The State Bureau of Investigation also will conduct an investigation, which is standard protocol in shootings with troopers.
Diaz said the Highway Patrol showed his family the dashboard camera video before it was released to the public.
“I got a little bit of clarity out of (the video),” said Moises Diaz. “No matter what the situation was, it’s clarity so that I can move on with my life.”
Mateen said she had learned that Mark Diaz had been spending time with older friends whom she believed were not good influences.
“This is just one of those events that is unfortunate for everyone involved,” Mateen said. “It’s a shame because if (Cook and Diaz) would have met in different circumstances they would have probably liked each other.”
This story was originally published June 7, 2022 at 7:03 PM.
