“I’m going outside to secure my neighborhood”, the man said. “I yelled at them ‘please leave the premises.’ They were showing firearms, so I fired a warning shot and we got someone that got hit”, Copley said during the 911 call. There’s some devil in them.
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“You need to send PD as quickly as possible”, he said.
Chad Cameron Copley, left, is charged with murder for the shooting death of Kouren-Rodney Bernard Thomas, right. And days later, members of the Neuse Crossing Homeowners Association told the Raleigh News & Observer that the neighborhood doesn’t have a watch group like the one Copley said he belonged to.
After the dispatcher asks who was outside, the caller says: “There’s black males outside my freaking house with firearms”.
Walker told the News & Observer that Thomas “had a little weed on him”, and took off running towards their vehicle. He told WTVD that Thomas was near Copley’s mailbox when he was fatally shot. The man said he fired a warning shot to scare the people away, but the shot hit someone.
Police spokesman Laura Hourigan said state law prevents authorities from confirming the caller’s identity.
Butler-Thomas talked about her two other sons that she has to “worry about now every day”.
“Ma’am, I don’t know who they are”, the man said.
Asked if Copley might invoke castle doctrine or stand your ground laws – self-defense laws that were key to the Zimmerman acquittal – Bamberg flatly said it’s “not even something that should be brought up” because Copley was safe from any perceived threat inside his home. “I wish that everybody would not have to go through what we have to go through”. Saying there are people outside with guns, he tells the dispatcher he is on neighborhood watch and asks them to send police.
‘This man took my baby’s life, ‘ Butler-Thomas, said in a phone interview from her home in Louisburg.
Copley was arrested and is in Wake County jail, where he’s charged with first-degree murder. “He was a good kid, and I don’t have him anymore. there’s nothing I can do. I’m just exhausted. Everybody should be exhausted every day”, she sobbed. One teenage witness who lived at the home where the party took place said that nobody had guns nor was there any shouting or loud noises. Blood stains and bloody gauze were left in the yard about 30 feet from the garage, a few feet from the street.
Some details of the fatal confrontation remain unclear, but Raleigh police have confirmed that Copley fired at Thomas from the garage.
He continued: “I’m on neighbourhood watch”.
Copley’s attorney, Raymond C. Tarlton, issued a statement asking for the public not to jump to any conclusions as the case continues to unfold.
According to Walker, the two friends were standing outside, waiting for someone to give them permission to come in when a person they knew told them, “Bro, it ain’t no girls”.
Crosby said his mother called him early Sunday morning to tell him the news. “I gotta bury my child”. “Somebody has to get this to end”. Copley is charged with murder.
Thomas’ mother started a GoFundMe page seeking donations to help cover the funeral expenses.
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Zimmerman called 911 and described Martin’s behavior as “suspicious”, then disregarded an emergency dispatcher’s advice not to follow him.
