White man, 62, shoots black teen dead and coldly tells cops ‘That’s another piece of trash off the street’
A CALLOUS 62-year-old white man admitted to fatally shooting a black teenager before reportedly telling police: "The way I look at it, that's another piece of trash off the street".
William Pulliam has been arrested by US police and charged with the murder of the teen, who has been identified as 15-year-old James Harvey Means.
James was shot dead during a heated encounter with twisted Pulliam, who went for dinner and visited a friend after he opened fire on the boy with a revolver.
Police in West Virginia reportedly found the gun in his friend's home and jailed Pulliam on Tuesday.
Authorities have not officially identified the victim, but his devastated mother, Nafia Adkins, told the Charleston Gazette-Mail it was her son James who had been killed.
According to local police, the youngster was shot on Monday evening at an intersection and taken by ambulance to a Charleston hospital, where he was pronounced dead from two gunshot wounds.
The altercation started when the two knocked into each other on the street, according to witnesses.
Court records state Pulliam went into the store and James sat down with some friends on a nearby porch.
When Pulliam came back they started arguing again and as the teen crossed the street towards him, he revealed his weapon and shot him twice in the abdomen - reports say.
"I just shot him," Pulliam told a news station.
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Federal officials have been called on to determine whether the case could be considered a hate crime.
Pulliam faces a potential life sentence for "wilfully using a firearm to kill another person because of the victim's actual or perceived race, colour, religion or national origin."
"The review is in its early stages, and the fact that a review is being conducted should not be taken as an indication of what the review's outcome will be," Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Ruby said.
Pulliam denied he made the remarks to police and claims the shooting was not to do with race.
In an exclusive interview with ABC affiliate WCHS, he said: "I don't care if they're white or black ... Nobody is going to do me like that. It doesn't make any difference if he's black.
"My God, everybody that lives around here is black. I get along with all of them - ask them."
He also claimed James's friends were laughing and threatening him.
"The guy goes, 'What the f*** did you say?' I said, 'Man, I didn't say anything," he told the news station before alleging the teen had flashed a gun at him while his friends encouraged him to pull the trigger.
He added: "I felt my life was in danger. I'm sorry but I'm 62 years old - I'm not going to take a bunch of punks beating me up."
It was revealed by police that he did not have permission to carry the gun because of a previous conviction for domestic violence.
Pulliam maintains however that he is "a good citizen".
In 2013 he pleaded guilty to domestic battery.
After the shooting, the boys mother said through tears: "My son is in a safer place now, and we all love him."
"I'm going to leave everything up to the courts to take care of this man and do whatever they have to do to make him be punished."
A GoFundMe page has raised more than $46,000 for the boy's funeral expenses.
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