Mason Cole Pridemore was a 22-year-old man from Hickory, North Carolina, described by family as hard-working and motivated. On the evening of Thursday, February 20, 2025, an employee at Marco’s Pizza found an SUV left running in the adjacent Tabernacle Christian School parking lot. The driver was unresponsive; Hickory Police responded around 10 p.m. to 1405 29th Avenue Drive NE and found Mason inside the vehicle, deceased from an apparent gunshot wound.

Investigators recovered surveillance footage from the school and the restaurant that, according to court documents, showed two people exiting Mason’s SUV and running away. A friend told police Mason had planned to sell a gun that night. Officers found a firearm in its holster inside a compartment in the driver’s side door. A Hickory High School resource officer identified two teenagers in the footage.

On February 22 police arrested two 17-year-old suspects; both were charged with first-degree murder and initially held without bond in juvenile custody. In March 2025 a grand jury indicted Antonio Harris Jr. and Andrew Smith on murder charges, and the district attorney announced both would be tried as adults under a new North Carolina law. Does anyone have information about Mason’s movements that night or about the SUV seen on the surveillance video?