“My kids are not hoodlums”, Simone Butler-Thomas told ABC News. “Somebody has to get this to end”.
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Thomas was pronounced dead at a hospital.
According to the News & Observer, Kouren-Rodney Bernard Thomas was shot by Chad Copley, 39, from inside his garage.
The attorney for the family of Thomas has now begun referring to the gunman as “George Zimmerman 2.0” as an allusion to the neighbourhood watch volunteer who shot and killed unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin four years earlier in Florida.
‘It was silent, ‘ he told The News & Observer in Raleigh.
Later, Copley told a dispatcher that he had fired a warning shot and someone was hit.
He added, “I’m on neighborhood watch”. Saying there are people outside with guns, he tells the dispatcher he is on neighborhood watch and asks them to send police. “He took the life of an innocent man”, he said. While they were waiting, someone they knew told them, “Bro, it ain’t no girls”. Before Thomas died, Bamberg said, he opted to donate his skin and corneas to those in need.
“We have a lot of people outside our house, yelling and shouting profanities”, he said. “At this point we can not say anything more”. We didn’t make this about race. Thomas’ girlfriend, Amani Rainey, eulogized on Facebook. “He was a good kid and I don’t have him no more and there’s nothing I can do. I have to bury my child”. I just want justice for my son. “I’m just exhausted. Everybody should be exhausted every day”, she sobbed.
She said the young men had arrived at the house party to find it had spilled outside, and chose to leave after about 15 minutes because the friend had heard there were no girls there.
Thomas was leaving a party and walking with a friend to a parked vehicle when he was shot.
Thomas’ family gave emotional statements to reporters Wednesday, crying as they described the 20-year-old as kindhearted and amusing. He turned his head back to me, and that’s when a shot went off.
After completing their initial investigation the incident, Raleigh Police Department detectives obtained an arrest warrant charging Copley with murder. “At this point we can not say anything more”.
However his post-shooting 911 call seemed to set up the same defense Zimmerman successfully used after he killed Martin: a “stand your ground” law..
” I am going to have the neighborhood meet these hoodlums out here racing up and down the street”, he said.
“I lost somebody that I can’t even put in words how much they’ve taken from us”, said Kristian Williams, the victim’s other brother. There is some vandalism and they have firearms. “I am going to have my neighbors with me”, the caller said at 12:50 a.m. If I were you I would send PD.
Thomas’ family has said he was in the area for a party at a home nearby Copley’s and was leaving when he was killed. Butler Thomas said. “Would they be called hoodlums?”. Copley is white. Thomas is African-American. Lewis’ account of what happened varies greatly from what can be heard on another 911 call placed just minutes before the fatal shot was sacked: Caller: It’s Singleleaf Lane.
“Mr. Copley never left his house, never left his position of safety, never was in reasonable danger”, Bamberg said. “Recently, I was in the yard when a lady said “oh the kids are running around”.
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“I yelled at them, “please leave the premises”,” he said. “It’s stupid for someone to shoot out of a door like that”.
