There is mixed reaction from neighbors off Singleleaf Lane about the shooting that ended the life of a 20-year-old black man. Chad Copley, a white man is charged with his murder.
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Just minutes before Kouren-Rodney Bernard Thomas, 20, was fatally shot, 911 dispatchers got a call from someone claiming to be on the “neighborhood watch” and complaining about “hoodlums” outside his house.
” I am going to have the neighborhood meet these hoodlums out here racing up and down the street”, he said.
Copley was charged with first-degree murder in a case with disturbing similarities to the 2012 shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
The News & Observer in Raleigh reported Monday that there was glass in Copley’s yard and driveway from the blast traveling through one of the home’s windows. “I yelled at him, ‘We good now, stop running.’ He turned his head back to me, and that’s when a shot went off”.
We turn to a shooting in North Carolina drawing controversy.
According to Walker, Thomas then thought he saw police lights, so he took off running due to having “a little weed on him”, but he eventually came back. “I yelled at them, ‘please leave the premises.’ They were showing a firearm, so I fired a warning shot and we got somebody that got hit”. I am locked and loaded and I am going outside to secure my neighborhood. Authorities did not say whether Thomas or any of those who were with him were armed as Copley had indicated in the 911 calls.
If convicted, Copley could face the death penalty. In a short press release, Tarlton asked that people not rush to judgment in the case. “It’s 1 o’clock in the morning, there is some vandalism, they have firearms – and we are going to secure our neighborhood”, he said. Details of what led up to the fatal shooting are unclear, but Raleigh police say Copley fired at Thomas from inside his garage. He said that he “fired a warning shot” but couldn’t be sure whether anybody had been hit. “I just think this situation deteriorated in the wrong way”, said John MacDonald.
Copley then, suddenly, hung up. 911 Call:Caller: There’s a black male outside my freaking house with a firearm please send PD.
On Sunday, Copley made a phone call to the Raleigh Police Department to report that people were standing outside of his house. “You shoot the person who is threatening you”, he said.
Thomas died at the hospital, and Copley, 39, was arrested. Jalen Lewis, a neighbor who lives two doors down from Copley had hosted a party that night where he said Thomas was one of about 50 guests.
Thomas’ mother, Simone Butler-Thomas, launched a GoFundMe page to raise money for funeral expenses. While he didn’t know Thomas personally, he said he didn’t see anyone carrying guns or causing problems outside on the street.
“The man’s body was right in front of the mailbox”, Lewis told the station, pointing to Copley’s mailbox. “I don’t know how (Thomas) was a threat from the garage”. He loves pink and all I want to do is send him off well.
Walker told the News & Observer that Thomas “had a little weed on him”, and took off running towards their vehicle.
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Neuse Crossing residents don’t have a neighborhood watch group, said Mike Ellis, a co-owner and spokesman for Kohn-Ell Association Management, which manages homeowners’ associations across the city, including at Neuse Crossing.
