Kouren-Rodney Bernard Thomas was 20 when he was shot and killed on August 7, 2016, in the Neuse Crossings neighborhood of Raleigh, North Carolina. Thomas had been at a party and, according to trial testimony, was walking back to his car when a shot was fired from inside a nearby garage and struck him while he stood in the street.

The shooter, 39-year-old Chad Cameron Copley, called 911 before the shooting, describing the people outside as hoodlums, saying they had firearms, and telling dispatchers he was locked and loaded and intended to secure the neighborhood. Copley was charged with first-degree murder, convicted in February 2018 and sentenced to life without parole. The North Carolina Court of Appeals overturned that conviction in May 2019, ordering a new trial because of problematic remarks in the prosecutor’s closing argument about motive.

Family members, including Thomas’s mother Simone Butler-Thomas, expressed grief and frustration after the appeals court decision.