Man Who Called 911 About 'Hoodlums' Charged With Murder

A white man who apparently called police to complain about "hoodlums" near his house in Raleigh, NC, was charged with murder after authorities say he shot and killed a black man outside. The shooting happened early Sunday 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, the AP reports. Kouren-Rodney Bernard Thomas, 20, suffered a gunshot wound and was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Police released a recording of a 911 call from before 1am Sunday in which a male caller tells a dispatcher that he's "locked and loaded" and preparing to go outside. Saying there are people outside with guns, he tells the dispatcher he is on neighborhood watch and asks them to send police. "We've got a bunch of hoodlums out here racing," he says. "I am locked and loaded. I'm going outside to secure my neighborhood." The dispatcher then attempts to get a numeric address for the caller, but he declines and hangs up. In a call from the same address around seven minutes later, a man who sounds like the same caller says he fired "a warning shot" and there was "somebody that got hit." (More North Carolina stories.)