Brenton Heller, 19, of Frederick said he looked up to Matlock. "He was so kind and caring. He just loved his friends," Heller said.
Sitting on the hood of a 1987 Oldsmobile that his son restored, Ray Matlock talked so quietly that it was hard to hear the fury his words imparted. During an interview the night before his son's funeral, Matlock, manager of a FedEx Kinko's, said that when his son's friends ask what they can do, he challenges them to look him up next year and describe how his son's death changed their lives.
"I think he was killed by a video camera," Ray Matlock, 58, says of his son. ". . . It's the thrill of being on the Web."
(Ricky Carioti -- The Washington Post)
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Ray Matlock described his son as a loving, high-spirited young man who had been fascinated with mechanical things since the days he played with Legos. Once, he proudly showed off his installation of video screens on the sun visors of a new Corvette.
He loved the beach and road trips. He once took off for Texas with nothing but $5 and a pack of cigarettes. And he liked thrills, or at least speed.
Shaun Matlock, who worked in an auto parts store, had borrowed the YZF750 Yamaha from a friend for about six months, his father said. But he also was watching videos of a stunt team practicing maneuvers, each member trying to one-up the others.
Ray Matlock said Brandon Edwards told him it was all about the camera.
"This kid will tell you they decided to do the most outrageous thing because they were being filmed," Matlock said.
Heller, who witnessed the accident from a car, said Matlock was going at least 80 mph when he crashed. The impact tore off his helmet and hurtled him through the air. Heller said he ran to his friend, attempted to revive him and cradled his head as he lay dying.
"It was just part of what he had suggested that he wanted to do," Heller said. "He was a man of courageous things. He always did crazy things. This time, he was just over-crazy."
Friends called Matlock's parents, who drove to the scene before police notified them. Trooper Robinson talked Ray Matlock out of walking down to where his son lay, saying it was not something a parent should see. Shaun Matlock's mother, Jolene, a nurse, collapsed when troopers told her that her son was dead.
Staff researcher Bobbye Pratt contributed to this report.
