Armed Mob Looking For Missing Teenage Girl Terrorize Black NC Family

Last week, an attorney for the family of Dameon Shepard wrote a letter detailing an incident in which an all-white mob led by off-duty New Hanover County Sheriff’s deputy J.T. Kita “terrorized” the teenager and his family over a case of mistaken identity — and authority:

In a letter addressed to New Hanover and Pender County District Attorney Ben David, James Lea claims the armed group of people, all white, knocked on the door of the home of Monica Shepard late Sunday night. Shepard was asleep, but her son, Dameon, a high school senior, was awake and playing video games in the front of the home located in the Avendale community in Pender County. The Shepards are African-American.

When Dameon answered the door, Lea says the group demanded to know information about a young missing girl. The group was apparently looking for an individual named Josiah, who lived next door to the Shepards but left that neighborhood a month earlier.

Lea says Dameon identified himself by name several times, but the group continued to press for information that he did not have.

Among the people on the Shepard’s porch demanding answers was a person carrying an assault weapon and another with a shotgun, Lea wrote in the letter.

Also part of the group was an off-duty member of the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office. Lea says Deputy J.T. Kita, who works in the detention division, was in uniform and armed.

When Dameon attempted to shut the door after telling the group who he was, Lea says the New Hanover County deputy stuck his foot in the door and demanded to come inside.