Deadly stabbing caught on camera in downtown Raleigh

The fatal stabbing happened back in December, but the video was recently made public.

Video from surveillance cameras on the side of the Wake County Sheriff's Office helped investigators piece the case together. Footage shows the 15-second scuffle leading up to a fatal stabbing.

Michael Bostic, 58, was stabbed in the neck at the entrance to a parking garage at the Wake County Justice Center.

“We don’t know exactly what led up to the initial altercation," said Lorrin Freeman, Wake County district attorney.

The interaction started at the GoRaleigh bus terminal a few blocks down the road. Footage shows a man walking down Davie Street. Behind him, Bostic is visible, walking and then suddenly dropping his bag and starting to run.

Footage shows Bostic darting past the sheriff’s office before attacking the man from behind. The scuffle spills into the parking garage, where the man Bostic is attacking pulls a knife and stabs him twice.

The man who stabbed Bostic — who has not been identified — is then seen running away and across the street. Bostic collapsed on the sidewalk and was found unresponsive by someone walking down the street.

Freeman has decided not to file charges.

“The evidence based on those videos was that this was a situation where there was a self-defense argument to be made," she said. “When there is a danger to self or others, people have a right to defend themselves.”

Even though the man ran away and failed to call 911, Freeman says, “I think in this incident, not knowing and not having any evidence what that individual knew or understood to have happened at that point, that was not a line of questioning or criminal prosecution we thought was sustainable.”

Freeman says the two men knew each other and spent a lot time downtown.

Officers reviewed footage from eight cameras and eventually found the man who ran away.

“It’s the first time that I am aware of that we have been able to structure this chronological picture of what happened," said Freeman.

Freeman says video evidence — including video from doorbell cameras — is helpful in prosecuting an increasing number of cases.

WRAL News reached out to Michael Bostic’s family about the DA’s decision not to file charges, but they did not respond.