Mom of Raleigh Man Shot Dead Breaks Down After Telling 'GMA' Race Played a Part
"They don't call a group of white boys hoodlums," she says of 911 call.
— -- A North Carolina woman, whose unarmed son was killed while leaving a party, broke down at a news conference this morning after telling ABC News earlier she believes race may have been a factor in the shooting.
"I'm going to bury my child," Simone Butler-Thomas told reporters today through tears outside her Raleigh home. "He was a good kid and I don’t have him no more and there’s nothing I can do.
"I just want justice for my son," she said.
Kouren Rodney Thomas, 20, was shot to death early Sunday after a 911 caller complained of "hoodlums" in his neighborhood.
"We have a bunch of hoodlums out here. I'm locked and loaded," a caller told 911 dispatch. "I'm going outside to secure my neighborhood."
Police say six calls were made to 911. One included remarks about race. "There is black males outside my freakin' house with firearms, please send PD," the caller said, though it's unclear whether it's the same person who called about "hoodlums."
Chad Copley, a 39-year-old white man, fired a shotgun once out of his garage, striking Thomas as he walked by, according to authorities.
"They don't call a group of white boys hoodlums. My kids are not hoodlums," Butler-Thomas, who’s black, told ABC News before today’s news conference. "No child, black or white, should have to be shot down before they even have a life.
"Race did play a part and it has to end," she added.
Family attorney Justin Bamberg today called Copley "George Zimmerman 2.0."
"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. "He was never reasonably in danger of eminent harm, he shot through a closed garage door into a street full of young innocent people."
Butler-Thomas had moved her family to North Carolina from New York in 2001 for the safety of her three boys, she told ABC News.
At this morning's news conference, Butler-Thomas talked about her two other sons that she has to “worry about now every day."
"All the killing, black kids, white kids, adults, I'm just tired. Everybody should be tired every day," she said. "When is it going to end?"
Kouren Thomas' brother Christian Williams also shed tears at this morning's emotional news conference. "I'm trying to be so strong for my family. I don’t know how to deal with this," he said. "This hurts so bad. ... I just want my brother back."
Thomas was walking with a friend, David Walker, to their parked car down the street when he was shot, Butler-Thomas said. Walker has denied Copley's claims about the presence of firearms.
"It was silent," Walker told The News & Observer, the Raleigh newspaper. "No fighting and no arguing and no one waving guns."
Investigators have not found any weapons connected with the case, other than the one fired by Copley.
Raleigh police said Copley was arrested hours after he shot Thomas. Copley is charged with murder.
The District Attorney is presenting the case to a grand jury at the end of this month. Copley's lawyer, Raymond Tarlton, said in a statement, "We urge restraint and that folks not rush to judgment."
Thomas' mother has started a GoFundMe page seeking donations to help cover the funeral expenses.
"How do you plan a funeral for a child?" Butler-Thomas said.
