- A black family in
North Carolina alleged that a uniformed, armed, off-duty sheriff's deputy arrived at their door with a "mob " of civilians and demanded to be let inside. - The deputy, Jordan Kita, has since been fired and charged with forcible
trespassing , breaking and entering, and willful failure to discharge duties, the local district attorney said. - The deputy and other members of the group appear to have mistaken the family for someone else, and were searching for a missing 15-year-old girl, according to a lawyer for the family.
- "We obviously cannot have armed groups of citizens patrolling the streets of Pender County or New Hanover County terrorizing innocent families," the lawyer wrote in a letter to prosecutors.
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A sheriff's deputy in North Carolina was fired and criminally charged for his role in an armed confrontation at the home of a black teenager who had been mistaken for someone else.
Jordan Kita, a former detention officer with the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office, has been charged with forcible trespassing, breaking and entering, and willful failure to discharge duties, according to the local district attorney.
The incident occurred on the evening of May 3, when Kita and approximately a dozen other men and women arrived at the door of the Shepard home. They found Dameon Shepard, an 18-year-old high school senior who was playing video games, according to a letter to prosecutors from a lawyer representing Dameon, James Lea.
Lea wrote that the group of people knocked on Dameon's door and said they were looking for someone named "Josiah" in connection with a missing 15-year-old girl. According to Lea's letter, Josiah had lived next door to Dameon and his mother, but had moved out a month earlier.
Dameon repeatedly told the group his name and tried to shut the door, but Kita blocked the door with his foot and demanded to be allowed inside the home, Lea alleged, adding that Kita was armed and in uniform, and other members of the group were carrying assault weapons and shotguns.
"We obviously cannot have armed groups of citizens patrolling the streets of Pender County or New Hanover County terrorizing innocent families," Lea wrote in the letter.
The sheriff said there was likely enough evidence to make an arrest that night, but he 'didn't want to rush any hasty decisions'
Amid the commotion, Dameon's mother, Monica Shepard, woke up and came to the door and refused to allow the group to come inside.
"My first thought was, 'What is going on?'" she told The New York Times. "It felt like an instant weight — that something was very wrong. As I rushed to the door, my only thought was to get Dameon in a more protected position. If anything bad was about to happen, it would be me first."
She said others in the group soon began trying to force their way inside the home and "that is when the real panic was setting in." The group kept yelling at Dameon and accusing him of having a girl with him, she added
"I had this heightened fear that this could end very badly, and I knew I was not stronger than this mob at my door," she said.
Eventually, the group of people apparently realized they were at the wrong home and left. Deputies from the Pender County Sheriff's Office arrived shortly after and interviewed the Shepards but didn't immediately arrest any members of the group.
Sheriff Alan Cutler acknowledged Friday there was likely enough evidence that night to make an arrest, but his office "didn't want to rush any hasty decisions."
He continued: "We wanted to make an informed decision. The situation was defused and we didn't feel like there was any further threat that evening."
One other member of the group, Austin Wood, was charged with the misdemeanor crime of "going armed to the terror of the public."
The incident comes amid outrage over a similar instance of alleged armed vigilantism in
The man, Ahmaud Arbery, was killed in late February after leaving his home for a jog. Two men, 64-year-old Gregory McMichael and his 34-year-old son Travis McMichael, weren't arrested until May 7, when they were charged with murder and aggravated assault.
- Read more:
- The full story of how the Ahmaud Arbery 'lynching' became a national flashpoint for justice
- Lawyer for the man who recorded the video of Ahmaud Arbery's killing gave a strange interview in which he belittled his client's education and denied a connection with the McMichaels
- Georgia's attorney general said he is 'sickened' by the video of Ahmaud Arbery's murder and will make sure that 'justice is done'
- New video shows Ahmaud Arbery stopping briefly at a construction site before his shooting death