HOMEOWNER GETS LIFE FOR SHOOTING UNARMED MAN

RALEIGH, N.C. A white homeowner who shot and killed an unarmed black man after reporting “hoodlums” in his neighbourhood was sentenced Friday to life in prison after the victim’s mother told the judge she has struggled since her son’s death.

Superior Court Judge Michael O’Foghludha sentenced Chad Copley, 40, to life without parole a day after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder for the August 2016 shooting.

The racial overtones of the shooting were stoked soon after it happened by the release of 911 tapes in which Copley complains of “hoodlums” outside his Raleigh house.

Twenty-year-old Kouren Thomas was leaving a nearby house party when he was hit by the fatal shotgun blast Copley fired from inside his garage. Witnesses said Thomas had no gun, and prosecutors said none was found where he fell to the ground.