A white North Carolina homeowner who shot and killed an unarmed black man lied about being part of a neighborhood watch.
Chad Copley, 39, is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Kouren-Rodney Bernard Thomas, 20.
Copley called 911 early Sunday morning to report “hoodlums” racing up and down his street.
Copley told the dispatcher he was “on neighborhood watch”.
“We’ve got a bunch of hoodlums out here racing. I am locked and loaded. I’m going outside to secure my neighborhood.”
Thomas was partying at a house several doors away from Copley’s home.
“I’m on neighborhood watch,” Copley told a dispatcher. “I’m going to have the neighbors with me. There’s hoodlums out here racing up and down the street. It’s 1:00 in the morning, um, there’s some vandalism. They have firearms, and we’re going to secure our neighborhood.”
Copley hung up the phone, then fired his shotgun from inside his garage, wounding Thomas.
Moments later, a woman called 911 from inside his home and put Batts back on the line.
Copley claimed he fired “a warning shot” at a crowd of youths outside his house.
“We have a lot of people outside our house, yelling and shouting profanities,” he said.
“I yelled at them, ‘Please leave the premises.’ They were showing a firearm, so I fired a warning shot and, uh, we got somebody that got hit.”
“Someone was shot?” asked the dispatcher.
“Well, I don’t know if they were shot or not, ma’am,” he told her. “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.”
The dispatcher asked Batts who had come to his home.
“Ma’am, I don’t know who they are,” he said. “There’s frigging black males outside my frigging house with firearms. Please send PD.”
Jordan Lewis, 16, who threw the party at his home, told the Raleigh News & Observer that about 50 people attended the party.
David Walker, who arrived at the party with Thomas, said the street was quiet. “No fighting and no arguing and no one waving guns.”
A spokesperson for the Neuse Crossing Homeowners Association said there was no neighborhood watch.
“The association is mainly concerned with covenant enforcement and social functions, like mowing the front entrance and fixing things,” Mike Ellis told The Raleigh News & Observer.
He said police instructed neighbors not to take anything into their own hands if they encountered trouble. “We do not give residents police powers at all.”
The case drew similarities to Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old Florida student who was stalked and killed by George Zimmerman in 2012.
