RedactedNarrative: On august 24, 2018 at approximately 2356 hours, a boating incident occurred on badin lake in the main channel resulting in a fatality.  The collision happened between printers lane, a road within the uwharrie point community in montgomery county and king''s mountain point, a fishing access area within the uwharrie national forest in montgomery county.  Vessel 1, involved in the incident, is an 18'8” z518 ranger bass boat and is the property of deceased.   Vessel 2, involved in the incident, is a 23' cypress cay pontoon boat.  Operator1 received blunt force trauma to the left portion of his face from impacting the side railing of the bimini top located on the pontoon boat.  The impact also ejected him from his bass boat.
  
  Operator1 and passenger were fishing in a bass tournament on badin lake this evening. The tournament's official weigh-in was at midnight 0000hrs on august 25, 2018. According to v1 occupant and data received from the gps on the bass boat vessel 1 was traveling south-southwest at approximately 50-52 mph in the main channel and was headed back to the cube-hydro access area in the town of badin, nc in stanly county.  The wind was calm, the skies were partly cloudy, and bright due to a nearly full moon. Other than the vessels involved in the fishing tournament, the traffic on the lake was light. 
  
  According to v1 occupant, they were headed back to the weigh-in, when all of a sudden, he saw the silhouette of another boat appear in fOperator1t of them.  V1 occupant shouted to Operator1 “boat!”.  Operator1 simultaneously recognized the boat and swerved to his left just before colliding with the boat, now known to be vessel 2.  
  
  According to v1 occupant, once the boats collided, the force and momentum threw him underneath the operator's console on the starboard side of vessel 1.  V1 occupant said the boat immediately turned off.  After he was able to get up and shake himself off, he realized that Operator1 was no longer in the boat.  He immediately began to search for him in the water.  While v1 occupant was calling out for his friends, he recalls the passengers from the other boat yelling obscenities at him.  He specifically recalled a female voice saying, “you stupid motherfucker, you hit us!”.  V1 occupant then located a figure in the water off in the distance he believed to be Operator1. 
  
  V1 occupant then started up vessel 1 and attempted to use the boat to locate Operator1. He was unable to steer the vessel due to the damage done to the steering column/functions.  V1 occupant then utilized the trolling motor to navigate and was successful in locating Operator1's body.  During this time, v1 occupant said that the passengers of the other boat were still yelling obscenities towards him. V1 occupant stated that he shouted back at them “why are you sitting in the middle of the lake with no lights on?”. There was no response or answer from vessel 2's occupants. V1 occupant then notices while he was still trolling over to Operator1, that the lights came on. According to v1 occupant, someone turned on the lights.
  
  Once the lights were turned on he only recalled seeing the stern light or rear all around light.  V1 occupant then reached for Operator1 and attempted to pull him out of the water and into vessel 1.  In the process he realized that Operator1 had received a massive head injury on the left side of his face.  He then started yelling for help because he couldn't physically lift him out of the water. V1 occupant then recalls haring someone from the bank called out, "we are on our way and have called 911." the people from the bank arrived to offer assistance by boat just minutes later.  Two male subjects got in vessel 1 and pulled Operator1 into the boat.  Subject1 stated that Operator1 did not have a pulse once they pulled him out of the water. According to v1 occupant, another 3rd party witness began performing cpr for at least 10 mins. The life saving attempt was unsuccessful.  Ems and law enforcement personnel began to arrive on scene a short time later.
  
  Operator2 and 8 other passengers decided around 23:00-23:15 to go on a midnight cruise on badin lake. They departed from their community in pine haven in montgomery county, which is on the north side of badin lake. According to Operator2 and all other passengers on board, Operator2 was the operator of vessel 2. According to Operator2 and all other passengers on board, all available lights were turned on when they left including the interior lights within the pontoon boat.
  
  V2 then traveled south towards the old north state club house following the bank on the right hand side of the lake at a cruising speed.  According to a passenger on board v2, they turned around and headed back to the house once they were able to see the old north state club house.  While cruising back towards the house and in the main channel, Operator2 had to use the restroom. V2 occupant stated, "when we were in the main channel, we stopped briefly for operator to use the bathroom".  According to several passengers of v2, Operator2 turned the boat off and walked back to the ladder at the stern of the vessel and climbed down the ladder and relieved herself from the ladder.  The collision would occur just minutes after the pontoon boat started back down the lake.
  
  Operator2 then turned the vessel back on and continued their cruise back towards her dock. Several occupants of v2 stated that the collision occurred moments or within a minute(s) of Operator2 turning v2 back on after using the restroom. According to several passengers, as they were traveling down the lake, out of nowhere a boat appeared.  Several passengers recalled only being able to see a red navigation light coming right at them.  One of the passengers who was aboard the pontoon and sitting in one of the front port side seats, stated that she had seen both green and red lights coming at them.  Operator2 said that she remembered seeing a boat coming directly at them at a high rate of speed and thinking or even saying out loud "this boat is coming right at us and it's not turning." she then turned the steering wheel as hard and fast as she could to the left, according to her, to get out of the way of the speeding boat. Several other passengers stated that Operator2 turned v2 towards the left to avoid he collision.
  
  Operator2 then heard and felt the impact of the other boat. The force of the impact knocked her onto the floorboard and across the pontoon boat. She was able to get up off the deck and back to the driver's seat which had been broken and knocked over. According to her and other passengers, the force of the impact threw all passengers on the starboard side of the pontoon boat over to the port side. According to several passengers on board v2, they said everything went out after the collision.   
  
  Operator2 had been drinking.
  
  