A former sheriff's deputy in North Carolina is one of two people who will be charged with terrorizing a family after an armed mob of white men marched to a house demanding information about a missing girl and pressing an innocent Black teenager for information.

Pender County Sheriff Alan Cutler and district attorney Ben David announced the charges May 8, five days after the incident took place, according to Wilmington, N.C. station WECT. 

James Lea, an attorney for the Shepard family sent a letter to David describing what happened. He said on May 3, the group knocked on the door of the home of Monica Shepard and her son Dameon, a high school senior. Shepard was asleep, but Dameon, who was up playing video games answered the door. The group wanted to know what happened to a missing girl and kept asking about an individual  who had lived next door, but had moved at least a month before.

Daemon identified himself by name several times, the letter says, but the group kept pressing him for information. When he tried to shut the door, New Hanover County deputy J.T. Kita, who was in uniform and armed, stuck his foot in it and demanded to be let inside. Behind him in the group were at least two others who had long guns.

Monica Shepard was awakened by the noise and tried to make the crowd leave her home, telling them the person they were looking for didn’t live there, but they persisted with Kita blocking her from closing the door. 

"He just said ‘I’m going to step inside, close the door and talk to you guys.’ And I said, ‘no you’re not.’ He had his foot on the threshold of my door, holding the door open and he said it again, he said ‘I’m going to step inside close the door and I’ll talk to you,’ when I said ‘no you’re not,’” Shepard explained, according to WECT. All this despite there being a graduation sign on the front lawn with her son’s name on it.

Eventually, members of the crowd began to realize they were at the wrong address and dispersed. Officers from the Pender County Sheriff's Office had been called in, but took no names of people in the crowd, a couple of which had followed them back to the house, and did not investigate, the letter says.
No arrests have come out of the incident yet. The girl the crowd was looking for, Lekayda Kempisty, 15, had been reported missing earlier that day but was later found safe, USA Today reports.

Lea said he plans to take legal action on behalf of the family but also wanted an investigation from the district attorney.

“We obviously cannot have armed groups of citizens patrolling the streets of Pender County or New Hanover County terrorizing innocent families. Add to the fact that they were also accompanied by apparently a New Hanover County Sheriff’s Deputy that was off duty and armed, makes this matter particularly egregious,” Lea wrote in his letter.

Kita is now facing charges of forcible trespass, breaking and entering and willful failure to discharge duties, according to WECT. He was fired last Friday (May 8). 

At a press conference, David said there is a family connection between Kita and the girl the crowd was looking for. Another individual will also be charged with armed intimidation.

“We are a quiet close knit family. It was traumatic and shocking, but I’m just thankful that it wasn’t worse,” said Monica Shepard. “I’m going to trust that they’re going to make the right decisions based on what they’re able to do and based on what the law allows them to do.”