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Steven J. Perry

Gender : Male

Age : 30

Race : Black

Date : 03/01/2026

Location : Durham Freeway near Swift Avenue

City : Durham

County : Durham

State : North Carolina

Agency : North Carolina State Highway Patrol

Cause of Death : Vehicle

Event : Officer killed on duty

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 03/01/2026, North Carolina State Highway Patrol Master Trooper Steven J. Perry was killed in a vehicle collision while on duty on the Durham Freeway in Durham, North Carolina. Perry was driving his patrol vehicle on N.C. Highway 147 shortly before 3:00 a.m. when a vehicle traveling the wrong way in the northbound lanes struck his patrol car head-on near the Swift Avenue exit. The driver of the other vehicle, identified as 39-year-old Melshawn Moore of Kinston, also died in the crash. Investigators said Moore had been driving southbound in the northbound lanes and impairment may have contributed to the collision. Perry had served with the Highway Patrol for nearly seven years and was assigned to Durham County. He previously played offensive line for the North Carolina Central University football team from 2014 through 2017 and graduated in 2018 with a criminal justice degree before joining the patrol. Following the crash, law enforcement agencies escorted Perry’s body in a procession from the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Raleigh to a funeral home in Durham, passing the North Carolina Central University campus where he had played football. Family members described him as a private person who preferred working behind the scenes to serve his community and said he had recently become the father of a young daughter.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.wral.com/news/local/trooper-killed-procession-nc-central-march-2026/
https://www.wral.com/news/local/durham-freeway-crash-swift-ave-northbound-closure-february-2026/
https://www.fox13news.com/news/nc-state-trooper-killed-wrong-way-crash