Several law enforcement officers and first responders on Monday described a chaotic scene outside a Raleigh home where a man was shot to death 18 months ago.
Monday was the first day of defense testimony in the trial of Chad Cameron Copley, 40, who is charged with murder in the Aug. 7, 2016, death of 20-year-old Kouren-Rodney Bernard Thomas.
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Thomas was leaving a house party down the street from Copley's home on Singleleaf Lane when he was shot. Investigators said Copley fired a shotgun through a window from inside his garage.
In a 911 call played for jurors last week, Copley complained about "hoodlums" in his neighborhood racing cars and vandalizing property, and he told the dispatcher that he was a member of the neighborhood watch and was "locked and loaded" and planning to "secure the neighborhood."
Before the dispatcher picked up the call, Copley can be heard in the recording telling someone, "I'm going to kill him."
Wake County Deputy Jonas Ekkens saw some cars "zipping through" the Neuse Crossing neighborhood while he was on patrol, so he stopped one. While he was talking with the people in the car, someone ran up to him to inform him of the shooting.
Ekkens, one of the first law enforcement officers on the scene, said several cars quickly left the neighborhood, but 30 to 40 people were still milling about. He called the scene "eerily calm" at first, but the crowd quickly became unruly, shouting obscenities at authorities.
"When we started to make our way towards the gentleman on the [ground], we were greeted with profanities and insults," he said. "It just felt odd. Here we are trying to help, and somebody decided to take it that route."
Raleigh police Senior Officer J.L. Campbell said one woman hit him in the chest and kicked him in the groin.
Police and deputies began detaining people, handcuffing them together and sitting them on the curb, to get the situation under control and because they weren't sure who had shot Thomas, both Ekkens and Campbell said.
"At some point, a female said, 'Why are you messing with us ... the shot came from there,' and pointed to the home," Ekkens said.
Two Raleigh firefighters who went to the scene to provide medical attention said they feared for their safety because of the tension in the crowd and uncertainty over whether the shooter was in custody.
Justice Evuka, who was at the party and saw Thomas get shot, said the crowd was frustrated by what they saw as more attention being given to rounding up bystanders instead of giving Thomas medical attention.
"Everybody was pretty much frantic," Evuka said. "In our opinion, we were watching someone die, and he wasn't even getting as much as CPR."
Ekkens acknowledged under cross-examination that he never heard any commotion from the party while he was conducting the traffic stop down the street. He also said he didn't see anyone in the crowd with a gun.
"The only gun I saw was the shotgun inside the house," he said, referring to a gun police took from Copley's home.
Evuka said he thought Thomas might have accidentally shot himself because he heard a gunshot and saw no one else around at the time. But he said he saw no gun anywhere near Thomas when he went to check on him and call 911.
Neighbors have said Neuse Crossing doesn't have a neighborhood watch, and they disputed Copley's statements that the party was rowdy and that people were vandalizing the area.
But Bob Boykin, a private investigator hired by the defense said there is a Wake County Sheriff's Office community watch sign on a post one street over from Singleleaf Lane. Boykin also said that Jace Williams, one of the party hosts, told him he had asked a group of people he thought were gang members to leave the party, and that group then congregated in front of Copley's house.
Williams, who testified last week for the prosecution, said the group that left the party never caused any commotion as they headed to their cars.
Copley has admitting to firing the shot that killed Thomas. He is expected to testify in his own defense.