Armed mob of vigilantes led by ex-deputy ‘terrorized’ Black teen in NC, lawsuit says
Update: Jordan Kita and Austin Wood’s criminal trial began Dec. 4, 2020, but was delayed because of COVID-19. They were acquitted on all criminal charges on Feb. 18, 2021, in Pender County Superior Court by Judge Chad Hogston.
A Black teenager in North Carolina said he was confronted at his home late one night last year by a mob of people — including a sheriff’s deputy in uniform — demanding information about the whereabouts of a missing girl.
The first thing he noticed was the guns.
Dameon Shepard, then a senior in high school, repeatedly told the all white crowd he didn’t know the missing girl and that they had the wrong person, according to a civil lawsuit filed in Pender County Superior Court. It took several minutes for them to leave and another five days before the district attorney filed criminal charges against two of the men involved.
Now, more than eight months later, those same men and several others are being sued in civil court for trespassing, assault and allegedly violating civil rights laws.
The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Lea/Shultz Law Firm filed a lawsuit Tuesday on behalf of Dameon Shepard and his mother, Monica.
“The harm that the defendants caused our clients demonstrates that the nation’s history of racist violence against Black people, particularly the presence of armed white mobs, is still alive and well,” Jennifer Nwachukwu said in a news release announcing the case. “Experiencing this kind of terror at your home — the one place you should feel safe — is simply unconscionable.”
Nwachukwu is counsel at the James Byrd Jr. Center to Stop Hate at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and is one of the attorneys representing the Shepards.
The lawsuit names former New Hanover County sheriff’s deputy Jordan Kita, his father Timothy Kita, Austin Wood and up to 12 other individuals, who are not publicly named, as defendants.
Jordan Kita was fired from his job and charged a few days after the alleged incident with misdemeanor breaking or entering, forcible trespassing and willful failure to discharge duties, McClatchy News previously reported. Wood was also charged with “going armed to the terror of the public,” which bars North Carolina citizens from arming themselves “for the purpose of terrifying others.”
It wasn’t clear Tuesday if Jordan and Timothy Kita or Wood had retained counsel. District Attorney Ben David’s office didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for information regarding the pending criminal charges.
‘Frightened, helpless and violated’
Dameon Shepard, now 19, was playing video games at home around 10 p.m. on May 3 when he heard a “loud bang” at the door, according to the complaint. He was met with a group of roughly 15 individuals — all of them white and many of them armed.
Jordan Kita was at the front of the group wearing his official law enforcement uniform with a department-issued weapon, the lawsuit said. Others were allegedly holding assault rifles and shotguns.
The group was reportedly looking for Lekayda Kempisty, a 15-year-old girl who went missing earlier that day and was later found safe. The district attorney previously said Kita is believed to be a “familial relation” and “not a total stranger” to Kempisty.
During the encounter, Shepard said Kita told him they were looking for a person named “Josiyah” who went to Topsail High School and knew Kempisty. That person used to live in the neighborhood but had since moved away.
Shepard went to Laney High School, and there was a sign in the front yard with his name on it congratulating him on graduating, his attorneys said.
“The all-white mob, which had come looking for a Black teenage male that lived in the neighborhood assumed that, because he was a Black teenage male, Dameon must be the person they were looking for,” the lawsuit said.
Shepard told Kita they had the wrong person and asked them to leave, according to the complaint. That’s when Kita allegedly put his foot in the door to stop Shepard from closing it and demanded he be let in.
“Dameon became very frightened and upset,” the lawsuit said. “The first things he saw when he opened the door were the guns, and he thought of all of the times when Black people have been killed by white police officers. He felt threatened and under attack, but he wanted to protect his mom and their home.”
Monica Shepard was reportedly awoken by the confrontation and came downstairs to tell them to leave.
Attorneys said she “felt frightened, helpless and violated” and was “terrified that Dameon would be viewed as a threat, and that the mob would shoot her son.”
Neighbors call 911
Concerned neighbors began to gather outside. Some reported seeing members of the mob wander around the Shepard’s property shining flashlights in windows, the lawsuit said. Someone eventually called 911.
The mob reportedly left before two deputies with the Pender County Sheriff’s Office arrived, then returned while the deputies spoke to Monica and Dameon Shepard.
The group stayed for roughly 10 minutes but no arrests were made or names taken, according to the complaint.
Pender County Sheriff Alan Cutler and the DA later said the situation was “diffused” and there was “no further threat” at the time, McClatchy News reported.
“Suffice it to say that they were following protocol and procedure to protect the integrity of the process and to make sure that when cases this serious occur, they get our full attention,” District Attorney Ben David said at the time. “Any narrative to the contrary is simply a false narrative.”
A representative from the Pender County Sheriff’s Office didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment Tuesday regarding the allegations in the complaint.
Several days after the alleged incident, attorney James W. Lea sent a letter to the DA’s office, Cutler and New Hanover County Sheriff Ed McMahon demanding an investigation. The criminal charges were announced May 8.
Lawsuit asks for $25K in damages, trial
Tuesday’s complaint alleges the Shepards have suffered from “emotional and physical distress, fear, intimidation, depression, and anxiety” since the incident.
Dameon Shepard — a former high school football player — lost at least 10 pounds, and his mother bought a gun, the lawsuit said.
“She continues to carry her gun, a stun gun, and/or mace with her, which she did not do before the incident,” the family’s attorneys said. “At her own expense, she also installed a Ring doorbell security system, which she would not have done were it not for the armed mob showing up at her home.”
The lawsuit alleges trespassing, assault, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy, interference with civil rights and violating the North Carolina Fair Housing Act.
Dameon and Monica Shepard are seeking at least $25,000 in damages, a jury trial and attorneys’ fees.
This story was originally published January 26, 2021 at 6:29 PM.
