Home Depot worker's death ruled homicide: Autopsy reveals blunt force trauma
The North Carolina Medical Examiner's Office has released the autopsy report Saturday of a Home Depot employee who died from injuries sustained in a shoplifting incident last year.
The autopsy report says Gary Lowell Rasor's cause of death was complications originating from a blunt-force pelvic injury, with contributing factors including hypertension and pulmonary emphysema.
Hillsborough police said Rasor died on Dec. 1, 2022 after being assaulted by a man on Oct. 18 2022 at the Hillsborough Home Depot where Rasor was an employee; He was 82 years old at the time of the crime, but celebrated a birthday before his death.
Arrest warrants show Terry McAnthony McMillian Jr., 26, of Durham, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and robbery.
The assault
Rasor was working at the Home Depot on Hampton Pointe in Hillsborough when a shoplifter shoved him to the concrete floor.
Surveillance footage shows the suspect walking past Rasor and pushing him down on his way out the door of the garden center with stolen merchandise on his cart. Arrest warrants show the pressure washers he stole were valued at $837.
His son said the footage is disturbing.
“This is 100% planned, and to include violence for a couple of power washers, it’s almost beyond comprehension," Jeff Rasor said.
Gary Rasor was left with several fractured bones, and spent weeks in the hospital.
His wife said his condition quickly took a turn for the worst.
“What hurts me the most is Gary was fine," Yovonne Rasor said. "He was not upset. He was upbeat until he saw the video, and he lost it. It was a trauma. That’s what the doctors have already said; the trauma caused the acceleration of fibrosis.”
