My name is Pamela Wilkie and my son, Thomas (Tommy) Murray, was shot and killed by a Massachusetts State Trooper on February 16th, 2020 shortly after 6 PM at a gas station in Newbury (Byfield), Massachusetts. Tommy was in the midst of a carjacking spree with each incident becoming more aggressive and dangerous. The last carjacking was done at knifepoint at Tulley BMW in Nashua, NH where Tommy was able to escape with a black BMW X5.  With witness descriptions and other evidence, law enforcement officials were confident that it was Tommy they were looking for. A Massachusetts state trooper, along with a local Newbury officer,  caught up with Tommy at a gas station and boxed him in with their vehicles. Tommy made a desperate attempt to flee by ramming both vehicles. Law enforcement gave Tommy every opportunity to surrender but he refused and the state trooper had no choice but to fire his weapon to stop him.  After the shooting, Tommy was taken to Anna Jacques Hospital in Newburyport where he was pronounced deceased at 6:53 PM. He was then taken to the Boston Medical Examiner‘s office where he was positively identified by his fingerprints. Meanwhile, my family and I were completely oblivious to all of this, even the carjackings. Tommy was extremely close to my parents who raised him with me and with whom he still lived. At 11 PM on Sunday, February 16, 2020 my 80 year old father turned on the 11:00 pm news as he did every night before going to bed. What he saw and heard was the horrific breaking news that “Massachusetts State Police shoot and kill suspected carjacker identified as Thomas Murray from North Andover”. Even though my parents and Tommy lived in Dracut, Massachusetts at the time, my father immediately knew that it was our Tommy that was killed as he often used his partner’s address in North Andover. This is now almost 5 hours after the shooting and over 4 hours after my son was pronounced deceased that we are having to find out on the news that our beloved son, grandson, nephew, and brother was shot and killed. We didn’t even have a local Dracut police officer come to our door to notify us for another hour and a half after we saw it on the news. Losing Tommy in this manner has been traumatic enough. Finding out about his death and the tragic manner of his death on the news at the same time as the the rest of New England is completely unacceptable and infinitely compounded the trauma. My son and my family deserve more respect and compassion than that, regardless of the circumstances of his death. No family should ever have to find out about their loved one’s death on the news. We waited 11 months for the results of the investigations before we had any answers whatsoever. When I asked the District Attorney’s Office why the media released my son‘s name on the news before we were even notified, the only answer that I got was that they must’ve been listening to the police scanners and heard the police say that it was Thomas Murray. I was told by the DAs office that the media has a right to listen in and that they (law enforcement) cannot control what information the media will then release. I strongly believe that law-enforcement should have the authority to control whether or not the media releases names before the family has been notified. The media should never be allowed to release any victim’s name until law enforcement confirms that the family has been notified. 

I realize that the public has a right to know if they are in danger and the public has a right to know how about an incident such as this. However, my son had been shot and killed and he was no longer a danger to anyone. There is no reason whatsoever that the media needed to inform the public at that time of whom exactly it was that the police shot and killed when my family hadn’t even been notified yet. For a family to hear their loved one’s name on the news in a situation such as this, it adds another level of trauma to the grief that is completely unnecessary. My mother has recounted to me my father‘s reaction to the breaking news as he ran through the house screaming “They shot him! They shot him! They killed Tommy!”  He immediately called the rest of the family as we all turned on the news. My father has since passed away, almost 2 years to the day that we lost Tommy. None of us will ever be able to watch the news again without thinking about that night and what we saw and heard on the breaking news. I have waited for my car to be serviced at the dealership and there was a TV on in their waiting room. No matter what it is they are talking about on the news, this traumatic event all comes flooding back to me when the news is on and I often have to walk outside to compose myself. I have consulted with grief therapists since this incident and they confirm that I suffer from PTSD as a result of my son’s death and that finding out through the news has compounded that trauma. I truly believe that if we can prevent the media from releasing deceased victims’ and deceased suspects’ names until the families have been notified, it will prevent so much unnecessary trauma and PTSD that will stay with us for the rest of our lives. 

I don’t know for sure whether or not there is a law in place that prevents the media from releasing names until families are notified. If there is a law in place, the media is clearly disregarding it.  It needs to be enforced. If there is no law in place, there needs to be one and it needs to be enforced.  I appreciate freedom of speech, but a story can be told without releasing a name prematurely. The media seems to respect the fact that they cannot release the name of a minor.  They should be held to the same standard when it comes to the name of someone whose family has not been notified yet. They have no right to choose to be the ones to notify families, especially notify families publicly. This petition is something I have wanted to do since my son was killed. I wasn’t sure how to go about it, how to start it. I have procrastinated somewhat because recounting the events is excruciating. But being able to put something in place, having it enforced and preventing any other family from going through the same thing is worth the pain of telling our story. My family and I do not defend Tommy’s actions. We recognize that what he was doing was dangerous and put others at risk. Our hearts go out to the people affected by his actions and to the law enforcement officials involved and we ask that they forgive Tommy. We also ask that you put Tommy’s actions aside while considering signing this petition in order to protect the families affected by the media releasing the names of the deceased before being notified by the proper authorities.