Man calls cops to report ‘hoodlums,’ then fatally shoots black man

Kouren-Rodney Thomas, 20, was killed by Chad Copleyin Raleigh, North Carolina on Sunday, according to a statement sent to ATTN: by Laura Hourigan at the Raleigh Police Department.

“He was a good kid, and I don’t have him no more, and there’s nothing I can do”, Butler-Thomas said, sobbing. “Everybody should be exhausted every day”, she said.

On the family’s GoFundMe page for Thomas, a smiling photo of Kouren-Rodney holding a certificate shines at the top of the page, which has garnered more than $2,000 in donations for funeral services. He was later pronounced dead at WakeMed.

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, chose to take matters into his own hands.

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”. He wasn’t wearing sagging trousers, a do-rag or any article of clothing that might make someone to jump to the conclusion that he was a thug, she said. Lewis said Thomas was one of about 50 guests at his home that night, but said none of them were causing any trouble. They were showing firearms, so I fired a warning shot and uh, we got somebody that got hit …

“Something has to change”, Bamberg said. “At this point we can not say anything more”.

Friends and family of Thomas described him as charismatic and caring.

“I know [Copley] is lying. I gotta bury my child”.

Police said that Copley fired the shot from inside his garage.

“All the killing, black kids, white kids, adults, I’m just exhausted”.

Thomas was the youngest of three sons. “When is it going to end?” “I just want my brother back”. “This hurts so bad”, Kouren Thomas’ older brother Kristian Williams said.

Copley was charged in the death of Thomas and held without bail at the Wake County Detention Center. “We can not have that, and it stops, if we have anything to do with it, today”.

“We’ve had a bunch of hoodlums out here racing”, the first caller tells dispatchers. “I’m going outside to secure my neighborhood”. I’m on neighborhood watch, I have neighbors with me. There’s hoodlums out here racing up and down the street. There is some vandalism and they have firearms. “You’re going out to do what to the neighborhood, sir?” “You need to send PD as quickly as possible”.

His mother told The Associated Press Tuesday her son was leaving a house party down the street when he was gunned down.

“They don’t call a group of white boys hoodlums”.

“Race did play a part and it has to end”.

“There are some similarities, but one of the biggest differences here than what we saw in the Trayvon Martin case is that” Copley never left his home or his “position of safety”, Bamberg said. The neighborhood doesn’t have a watch program through the Neuse Crossing Homeowners Association, according to Mike Ellis, a spokesman for the association.

Caller: I’m gonna secure my neighborhood. “Recently, I was in the yard when a lady said “oh the kids are running around”.

“I’m just exhausted. Everybody should be exhausted everyday”, she said. “It’s stupid for someone to shoot out of a door like that”. “It doesn’t make any sense”. It’s just a bad situation overall. “At this time in appears to me that Castle Doctrine is not even something that should be brought up”. He told WTVD that Thomas was near Copley’s mailbox when he was fatally shot.

Bamberg told reporters how, on his mother’s birthday, Thomas “kneeled down to paint her toenails and rub her feet”, how he helped move his girlfriend into her college dorm and always stood by his oldest brother, Kristian Williams, during some hard times.