Chad Copley is a middle age white male who worked at the Krogers seafood department until one day he fired a Mossberg 12 gauge shotgun slug through his garage door window striking and killing an unarmed black youth.
A Wake County Grand Jury of his peers found <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4VBq5CnCdY">Copley guilty of first-degree murder</a> on August 7, 2016, shooting death of 20-year-old Kouren Thomas. Late one night Copley heard a group of people outside his home and opened a window to tell them to "Shut the f*** up."
Copley then called 911 and told dispatch he was going outside to "secure his neighborhood" and said he was a part of his neighborhood watch group despite a subsequent investigation finding no such group existed. Copley can also be heard saying on the 911 recording, "I'm going to kill that m* f*" and "I'm locked and loaded."
Copley went to his garage with his Mossberg 12 gauge pump action shotgun and loaded five slugs into the weapon. "I grabbed the shotgun and I load it with five rounds," Copley testified. He then fired the slug round out of his garage door window striking Thomas who was standing near his mailbox in Copley's front yard.
Copley testified at his own trial saying that a group of black youths was shouting profanities at him and even flashed handguns at him. "They actually lifted their shirts up, flashing the firearms," he said. "I kept telling them to leave and he reached for his gun and I shot him."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">“Maybe he can rest now knowing that his name was cleared.” - Mom of murdered 20-year-old Kouren Thomas. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/abc11?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#abc11</a> <a href="https://t.co/4A5ZNkL63f">pic.twitter.com/4A5ZNkL63f</a></p>— Elaina Athans (@AthansABC11) <a href="https://twitter.com/AthansABC11/status/966799088565014529?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
No handguns were found at the scene and an officer who was conducting a traffic stop down the street responded to the shooting within moments of the fatal shot that killed Thomas. The victim's mother, Simone Butler-Thomas, said, "This was so hard and it was so hard to go through today, every day. He was an excellent child, sweet child, loving child, protective child, and he didn't deserve to die on the curb."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">“What Chad Copley did that day was not self-defense” — attorney for Kouren Thomas’s family speaking now after a jury found Copley guilty of murder. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ABC11?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ABC11</a> <a href="https://t.co/yHSGBUyyFE">pic.twitter.com/yHSGBUyyFE</a></p>— Elaina Athans (@AthansABC11) <a href="https://twitter.com/AthansABC11/status/966797704872562689?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Thomas's mother disputed Copley's description calling her son a "hoodlum". "I just want people to know he wasn't a hoodlum. He wasn't a bad kid. He wasn't a thug. He wasn't a gang banger. And I just want to clear his name so people know he was a good kid," Butler-Thomas said.
<i>On Twitter:</i>
<a href="https://twitter.com/ErvinProduction">@ErvinProduction</a>
Tips? Info? Send me a message!
Twitter: #KourenThomas #ChadCoupley #Raleigh
The all to common mom ma crying
Not my thug baby. My thug baby would never do such a thing.
I feel having seen this scene played out before at other locations all the Thugs run off and guns disappear, …. he will win on appeal after things boil over.
Nothing good happen after mid-night.
Quoting the words of a local that had access to the legal motions.
—————————–
The motion also says that an arriving deputy reported 20 to 30 people in front of the home and pulled out his shotgun, “rather than his service pistol, due to the perceived threat.”
Dispatchers also at first told EMS that the scene was “too dangerous for EMS to provide aid due to the crowd,” the motion states.
“One individual at the scene hit a police officer and kicked him in the groin,” the motion adds.
The motion dwells heavily on links police found between people in the crowd and street gangs, including the G-Shine Bloods and the Crips.
The motion also contrasts Copley with the crowd. While people in the crowd talked nervously about what do with their guns or simply scattered, the motion says,
Copley cooperated fully with investigators.
Copley was at home with his wife and three children, who ranged from 3 to 17 years old, the motion states.
“Chad is alleged to have opened an upstairs window in his bedroom and exchanged words, including profanities, with some of the people standing in front of his house
due to the noise shortly before 12:50 a.m.,” the motion states.
“The Copleys called 911 and asked for the police to come right away after several angry people
brandished handguns at Chad and made verbal threats to him after he told them to quiet down.”
Suddenly Chad Copley sounds like a very concerned parent with children defending himself from an angry mob. Why did not one media outlet report that?
Kouren Thomas - (called victim) aka (Kouren-Rodney Bernard Thomas)
This fine young man was charged with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury (Felony) and then either plead down and/or was found guilty of assault inflicting serious injury (Misdemeanor) for which he was put on probation, en lieu of prison.
https://bailbondcity.com/north_carolina/ncdoc-inmate-THOMAS/1344165
Offender Number: 1344165
Probation/Parole/Post Release Status: INACTIVE
Gender: MALE
Race: BLACK
Ethnic Group: AFRICAN
Birth Date: 09/13/1995
Age: 20
Hummmmmmm! same age as when shot …..so it was a VERY RECENT arrest
Short list of 5 AKA's
HE WUZ A GOOD BOY DINDU NUFFIN N SHIET