According to a witness, the victim, Kouren-Rodney Bernard Thomas, was at a party on Copley’s street when Copley fired from inside his home Sunday.
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Investigators said Copley fired a shotgun through a window from inside his garage, striking Thomas, who was outside.
An investigation determined Copley was standing inside his garage when he fired a single shot from his shotgun.
Copley then says, “they were showing a firearm”. The judge later assigned Raymond Tarlton of the capital defenders office to defend him. We urge restraint and that folks not rush to judgment.
“We have seen too many wrongful convictions for anyone or any organisation to jump to conclusions on the basis of someone being charged”, the statement said. If convicted, he could face the death penalty. “Who shoots a warning shot at a person?”
A few minutes later, multiple reports of gunfire came into the 911 center. “I am locked and loaded”.
Bamberg cited similarities between the Martin and Thomas shootings: both were African-American males and both were allegedly shot by men claiming to be part of neighborhood watch.
“You need to send PD a quickly as possible”, a man can be heard telling a dispatcher. “You’re going out to do what to the neighborhood, sir?”
“I’m going to secure my neighborhood”. I’m going to have the neighbors with me. There’s hoodlums out here racing up and down the street.
He tells the operator, “It’s 1 in the morning”. We’re going to secure our neighborhood. “Please, send PD. Thank you”.
Asked if he can provide a house number or intersection, he says “Negative, ma’am”.
The law in North Carolina is outlined on the website of local law firm Kirk Kirk Howell Cutler and Thomas.
After the shooting, Copley calls 911 again, but seemed unsure if his bullet had in fact hit someone. The shooter, 39-year old Chad Copley, called 911 and told dispatchers that he was trying to protect his family from “hoodlums”.
“We have a lot of people outside our house yelling and shouting profanities”.
Dispatcher: OK. Somebody was shot?
There is nothing in North Carolina’s laws mandating, or even mentioning, use of a warning shot.
You never fire a warning shot. “They do have firearms and I am trying to protect myself and family”.
“Please just send a auto”, Copley responded.
The two friends stood outside, waiting for someone to give them permission to come in, when, Walker said, a person they knew told them: “Bro, it ain’t no girls”. No weapons were found outside, police said. The man responds that the dispatcher is “killing time”, and she argues that she isn’t wasting time and that someone else is dispatching police. The call appears to end abruptly.
Police said after Thomas was hit, he was taken to WakeMed where he was pronounced dead.
Thomas had been in the neighborhood to attend a house party that was two doors away from Copley’s home.
“The law presumes that you were in fear of serious bodily injury or death”, Knudsen said.
Neighbor David Parker told the News & Observer that the homeowners association tried to start a community watch several years ago.
“The man’s body was right in front of the mailbox”, Lewis told the station, pointing to Copley’s mailbox.
Thomas was walking with a friend, David Walker, to their parked vehicle down the street when he was shot, said Butler-Thomas, who found out about the incident from her son’s friends and witnesses at the scene.
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“Koury was my baby and I love him”. “I yelled at him, “we good now, stop running”. According to his family and friends, he was witty, friendly and protective man who worked at Waffle House and McDonald’s, had just gotten his very first apartment, and was going to help his girlfriend settle into her college dorm.
