An unarmed black man was shot and killed by a self-proclaimed neighborhood watchman in Raleigh, North Carolina, who, like George Zimmerman four years ago, decided to take matters into his own hands. On Sunday morning, Chad Copley gunned down Kouren-Rodney Bernard Thomas after he called emergency dispatchers about rowdy black men outside his home and told them he was “going outside to secure [his] neighborhood.”

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.”

“ I am going to have the neighborhood meet these hoodlums out here racing up and down the street,” he said. “It’s 1 in the morning. There’s some devil in them. They have firearms and we’re going to secure our neighborhood. If I was you, I would send PD out here as quickly as possible.”

Moments later, Copley told the dispatcher that he’d fired a warning shot because black men were brandishing firearms outside his house and he wanted to protect himself and his family.

“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.”

When asked if someone was shot, Copley responded, “Well, I don’t know if they were shot or not, ma’am,” adding, “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.”

Just before Copley hung up the phone, he said, “There’s frigging black males outside my frigging house with firearms. Please send PD.”

By the time authorities got to the house, Thomas was bleeding out on the ground.

Thomas’ friend David Walker ardently disputes Copley’s version of events. He says the two were walking away from a house party, when Thomas thought he spotted police nearby. Thomas was carrying marijuana at the time and tried to run away as fast as possible. Walker yelled for him to stop running, and a gunshot went off when Thomas turned to look at him.

At the time, it wasn’t clear where the shots came from. It later came to light that Copley had fired from his garage.

Walker also says no one was acting rowdy in the neighborhood. “It was silent,” he said. “No fighting and no arguing and no one waving guns.”

Shortly after the shooting, Copley was arrested, charged with first-degree murder, and locked up at the Wake County jail without bond. And days later, members of the Neuse Crossing Homeowners Association told the Raleigh News & Observer that the neighborhood doesn’t have a watch group like the one Copley said he belonged to.

But Thomas is far from the first young black man to be killed by a white vigilante who decided to take matters into his own hands. In many ways, his shooting is eerily similar to that of Trayvon Martin in 2012.

Trayvon Martin was walking to his family’s vacation home, carrying a bag of skittles and an Arizona iced tea, when George Zimmerman, who’s part Hispanic, spotted him from his car. Zimmerman was on a neighborhood watch, and called authorities to alert them about the teenager’s “suspicious” behavior.

“There’s a real suspicious guy. This guy looks like he’s up to no good, on drugs or something,” he reported. “It’s raining and he’s just walking around looking about… These a**holes always get away.” Zimmerman was told he didn’t need to follow Martin, but did so anyway. Within minutes, Martin was shot and killed.

Zimmerman’s neighbors later informed the media that he had a history of aggressive behavior, and authorities revealed that Zimmerman regularly called the police about black men in his gated community.

Source: thinkprogress.org

Date Posted: Wednesday, August 10th, 2016 , Total Page Views: 1410