A man from North Carolina was charged with murdering a black man after calling the police to complain about “hoodlums” in the neighborhood, according to authorities Monday.
According to police, Chad Copley, a white man, shot and hit a young black man Sunday morning after calling police to let them know that he was going outside to protect his neighborhood, reports the New York Daily News.
Kouren-Rodney Thomas, was pronounced dead at the hospital.
“We’re broken apart torn apart, not doing well. Trying to get our lives back on track the way it was but it’s hard. We lost somebody very special to us,” said a male relative at the listing for Thomas’ family who did not give his name.
Copley called the police department around 1 a.m. on Sunday to complain about “hoodlums” in the neighborhood; he told the 911 operator that he was armed and going to defend the area.
“We’ve got a bunch of hoodlums out here racing. I am locked and loaded. I’m going outside to secure my neighborhood,” Copley said.
A woman called the police from Copley’s home after he shot at Thomas. She told police that she was upstairs and unaware of what was going on. She put Copley on the phone, who told police that he fired his gun as a warning.
“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,” Copley told the operator.
When the operator asked if someone had been shot, Copley said that he did not know if anyone had been shot, but that he “fired my warning shot like I’m supposed to by law.”
Copley told the operator that there were black men outside his house.
“There’s black males outside my freaking house with firearms,” Copley said.
Copley has been charged with first degree murder and is being held without bail; if a jury convicts him, he could face the death penalty.
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