‘Sick of these people.’ NC First Lady Kristin Cooper reports intruder at private home

North Carolina first lady Kristin Cooper recently questioned the “vibrancy” of Raleigh’s Glenwood South district after a man tried to kick-in the door of her and Gov. Roy Cooper’s private home.

On her neighborhood listserv, Cooper said a man tried to kick down the door of the couple’s residence in Forest Park in late April around 3 a.m.

“He had no record and didn’t seem to know whose house it was,” she wrote. “Just a guy having ‘fun.’ Did anyone else have a disruption? I’m personally sick of these people roaming the streets of what is obviously a neighborhood, yelling and carrying on as they head to the free parking area for Glenwood South that we have become.”

“This is not what ‘vibrancy’ looks like to me,” she wrote.

In another message Cooper said the “simplest thing would be for the city to just enforce the noise, public drunkenness and drunk driving laws.”

“I can tell the time by when the noise starts,” she wrote. “The bars close at 2:00; between 2:15 and 2:30, the drunks hit St. Mary’s St.; drunken drag racing goes on until 3:00. And I hate being that person, I’ve always enjoyed the young people and students who live in this neighborhood, but it seems like since the pandemic, they have just gone feral.”

The Raleigh Police Department referred questions to the N.C. State Highway Patrol, whose spokesperson confirmed someone banged on the door and then left the property. No arrests were made, said Sgt. Christopher Knox. A Raleigh Police Department report shows the incident occurred at 2:59 a.m. April 23.

“People who live in Forest Park have reported an uptick of ring and runs and other similar disruptive behaviour when bars on Glenwood South close and patrons return to cars parked in the neighborhood, including someone banging on the door of the private home of the Coopers the other night,” said Jordan Monaghan, deputy communications director for the Governor’s Office. “No damage occurred and no arrests were made.”

Concerns about Glenwood South

The listserv message was raised during the Raleigh City Council meeting Tuesday night by local resident Woody Biggs, who has been asking leaders to address crime and noise in Glenwood South for months

“We have had noise issues for years. The crime issues seem to have escalated greatly in the last two years,” Biggs said in an interview with The News & Observer.

“Before the last 12 months I never heard about gunfire in Glenwood South,” he continued. “Now every month I am hearing about gunfire going off in Glenwood South. And if you don’t speak up nothing changes.”

The city has to get a handle on the issue before there is a deadly shooting, he said.

Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said it was the first time she’d heard about the incident at the Coopers’ home.

The City Council has held numerous meetings about safety in Glenwood South, Baldwin said, adding the police chief has increased patrols in the area and new signs have been installed to discourage people from parking in nearby neighborhoods.

“We are working diligently on the issue,” she told The N&O. “Unfortunately, right now in America, guns seem to be everywhere, and we have a huge problem in our country that needs to be addressed.”

On Wednesday, Baldwin said she plans to speak with Cooper about what happened.

“My intention is to speak to the first lady to see what happened, speak with her about the actions we are taking and discuss any ideas she may have to address the issues,” Baldwin said.

Glenwood South is the downtown nightlife district that runs along Glenwood Avenue between Peace Street to the north and Hillsborough Street to the south.