On Sunday, May 3 around 10:30 PM, a North Carolina high school senior named Dameon Shepard was playing video games in his bedroom when he heard a loud bang at his front door. After initially thinking that someone was banging on the bathroom door, Shepard heard the banging again. He went to his home’s front door. Outside was a group of white folks, some with guns—including an assault rifle and a shotgun—and one man in a law enforcement uniform. The man in the uniform told Shepard that the officer was going to come into Shephard’s home to look for a missing girl. Shepard told him that no one was coming into his home. Luckily at this point Shephard’s mother, Monica, woke up and moved her son away from the door to deal with the mob.
The mob was reportedly looking for a possible 15-year-old relative who had gone missing earlier in the day, and had come armed with guns and a name of a Black teenager. Monica Shepard was able to hold off the mob long enough for local county law enforcement to arrive. According to news reports, the man in the law enforcement uniform was now former New Hanover Sheriff's Office Deputy Jordan Kita. Kita has been fired and is facing criminal charges from the New Hanover County District Attorney’s office for trespassing and breaking and entering, while another man is facing charges of “going armed to the terror of the public.”
Monica Shepard questioned the intentions of the vigilante mob, asking WECT 6 News: “Coming to the door like that? With a mob of people? With guns? What do we think, what would we think was their intention? I mean, what if he were the person they were looking for? And what if I was not at home? What would have happened? I don’t want to have that conversation. I don’t want him to be a statistic.”
The Shepards say that Dameon continued to tell the mob his name and the fact that he attended Laney High School while the mob out front tried to gain entry to his home. Luckily, the Shepard’s neighbor reportedly called local law enforcement, having seen the mob advancing through the area and recognizing that the law enforcement clothing being worn was not the local county’s law enforcement uniform.
Once county deputies arrived, the Shepards learned that the mob was supposedly looking for Lekayda Kempisty. Kempisty was later found unharmed. The Shepards then had the captain from the county come and take their statements on the matter. It took almost a week—and the publication of the news story—before charges against anyone in the mob were announced. The Shepards say they are preparing a civil lawsuit.
Watch the full interview the Shepards did with the news below.