A North Carolina man is charged with murder after he shot another man outside of his Raleigh home early Sunday morning. He is now being held at the Wake County Detention Center without Bond. Copley said there were “hoodlums” on his street and told the 911 operator that he was going out to “secure” the neighborhood. “I’m going to have the neighbors with me”.
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“It appears that the person charged in this case had some kind of motivation to protect his neighborhood”, says Attorney Scott Holmes from NCCU School of Law.
In another of the 911 calls released by police, an unidentified man can be heard saying, “They shot him from the house”.
“We have a lot of people outside our house yelling and shouting profanities”. He said that he “fired a warning shot” but couldn’t be sure whether anybody had been hit.
Based on the investigation by Raleigh Police, a warrant was gathered for Copley’s arrest.
Copley now faces first-degree murder charges as a result of his actions – and could eventually be put to death if Chad receives the death penalty.
He didn’t say they threatened him with it or brandished the weapon, and he didn’t consider it a deadly force threat. We urge restraint and that folks not rush to judgment.
“There are frigging black males outside my frigging house with firearms”. He doesn’t know who fired the shot, he says.
Before shooting Thomas shortly after midnight on Sunday, 39-year-old Copley called the police to alert them about ” a bunch of hoodlums out here racing”.
It appears that prosecutors are considering the sentiments Copley expressed during his 911 calls as evidence of premeditation.
“We have seen too many wrongful convictions for anyone or any organization to jump to conclusions on the basis of someone being charged”, the statement said.
“I fired my warning shot like I’m supposed to by law.They do have firearms, and I’m trying to protect myself and my family”.
Family and friends of the victim told Raleigh news station WRAL that he died “for no reason”.
Raleigh police spokeswoman Laura Hourigan said community watch groups are organized by individual communities, but noted that the department “works with neighborhoods with and without community watch groups in the same ways, largely by sharing crime prevention information. and by encouraging all community members to call 911 to report any suspicious people, vehicles or activities”. “Please send PD immediately”. He said the two were on Singleleaf Lane, the street where Copley lives, trying to crash a party.
“Well, I don’t know if they were shot or not, Ma’am”, he told a dispatcher. “I don’t watch the news because I’m exhausted of hearing about these boys getting killed”, she said.
“A neighborhood watch is just that: a watch”, he said.
“I’m going to secure my neighborhood”.
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Simone Butler-Thomas told the newspaper that her son was a comedian who kept the family laughing. “I yelled at him, “we good now, stop running”. Two men tried to rob him in his home in the early 1980s while he was inside with his wife and newborn baby. “He looks just like me”. He told WTVD that Thomas was near Copley’s mailbox when he was fatally shot.
