Man faces life in prison after shooting at a group of 'loud and obnoxious black guys carrying firearms' at 1 o'clock in the morning in a suburban neighborhood

 A white man has been charged with murder after he allegedly shot and killed a black man outside his North Carolina home, moments after a 911 call that reported "hoodlums," according to authorities and 911 tapes.



The shooting happened early Sunday morning when 39-year-old Chad Cameron Copley fired a shotgun from inside his garage and hit the victim, according to a Raleigh Police Department news release. He was arrested hours later, and jail records show the suspect was being held on a murder charge.



“We got a bunch of hoodlums out here racing,” the 39-year-old Raleigh, North Carolina, man told the dispatcher early Sunday morning. “I’m going outside to secure my neighborhood.”


The dispatcher, responding to Copley, asked: “You’re going to do what?”


“I’m going to secure my neighborhood,” Copley said.





He continued: “I’m on neighborhood watch. I am going to have the neighborhood meet these hoodlums out here racing up and down the street. 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.”


A few minutes later, Copley was on the phone with dispatchers again.



This time, haltingly, he explained the aftermath:


“I yelled at them, ‘Please leave the premises,’ ” he said. “They were showing firearms, so I fired a warning shot and uh, we got somebody that got hit. . . .



“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 pressed for more information: Who’s been shot, how badly are they injured – and where, exactly, is the victim?


“Please just send a car,” Copley responded. “There’s friggin’ black males outside my friggin’ house with firearms. Please, send PD. Thank you.”


He then hung up.



When officers arrived, they found a 20-year-old black man, Kouren-Rodney Bernard Thomas, dying of a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at a hospital a short time later.