“Hoodlums” 911 caller guilty in murder of unarmed black man

RALEIGH, N.C. — A white man who fatally shot an unarmed black man after calling 911 and reporting “hoodlums” has been found guilty of first-degree murder in North Carolina.

News outlets report that the jury spent less than two hours deliberating before finding Chad Copley guilty of premeditated murder in the death of 20-year-old Kouren-Rodney Thomas, who was attending a party near Copley’s home.

WNCN

Prosecutors had said Copley appeared bent on violence when he told 911 operators he was “locked and loaded” to confront people he described as armed “hoodlums.”

CBS affiliate WNCN reports that Copley told the operator: “We got a bunch of hoodlums out here racing. I am locked and loaded and I am going outside to secure my neighborhood. You need to send PD as quickly as possible. I am going to secure my neighborhood. I am on the neighborhood watch. I am going to have my neighbors with me.”

About seven minutes after that call, Copley called 911 again: “We have a house…we have a lot of people outside of our house yelling and shouting obscenities. I yelled at them ‘please leave the premises.’ They were showing firearms, so I fired a warning shot and we got someone that got hit,” he said.

Defense attorneys acknowledged Copley fired the fatal shotgun blast, but said he feared for his safety and was covered by the state’s Castle doctrine.

On cross examination, Copley admitted escalating the situation and lying to the 911 operator about several things, including that he was on the neighborhood watch, that people were “racing up and down the street” and vandalizing the neighborhood, and that the shot he fired was a warning shot, reports WNCN. 

Copley’s sentencing hearing is set for Friday.