From first shots to suspect in custody, Raleigh mass shooting shakes neighborhoods along the Neuse
It took hours and a search that ranged for miles on both sides of the Neuse River east of downtown Raleigh to end an active shooter situation that frightened neighbors and stunned the City of Oaks.
Raleigh Chief of Police Estella Patterson said the mass shooting that claimed five lives began in the streets of the Hedingham subdivision, a residential and golf course community that backs up to the river and its greenway.
Just after 5 p.m., residents on Osprey Cove Drive began calling 911 to report hearing gunshots, seeing a person in camouflage clothing carrying a gun, and finding their neighbors badly wounded or worse.
"I’ve got one down. One male down. Hispanic. This is bad. He’s an off-duty officer," one caller told dispatchers. The Raleigh Police Department on Friday said that Officer Gabriel Torres, 29, was among the dead.
Tracey Howard found his wife, Nicole Connors, dead on the porch of their home, shot alongside her dog, Sami.
Mary Marshall, out walking her dog, called her fiancé to tell him she was scared and asked him to come home. It was the last time they would speak.
Law enforcement officers swarmed to the neighborhood, blocking off streets and asking residents to stay indoors.
Paramedics followed. They didn’t know where the shooter was but didn’t waste time getting to the victims. They found two people hurt on Sahalee Way, the street where suspected shooter Austin Thompson, 15, lived with his family. His older brother, James Thompson, 16, is among the dead.
Police searched door-to-door for hours in the Hedingham neighborhood. A man who lives in the neighborhood told WRAL News he saw the shooter outside the back window of his home after hearing gunshots. He saw a woman running in the same area.
By 5:30 p.m., the search spread to the Neuse River greenway. There paramedics found two women, both dead. Susan Karnatz, 49, who ran that trail every day, was one of them.
"The greenway is still a very much an active scene in a sense of not knowing where the subject is," a paramedic reported.
In addition to the five killed, two others were were injured. One of them was a Raleigh police officer, who was treated and released from the hospital. Marcielle Gardner, 59, was still at WakeMed on Friday in critical condition.
On the other side of the river, police, sheriff's deputies and state troopers massed near Beaverdam Elementary School, off Old Milburnie Road. Staff and students who were in the school after hours were locked down, and the Marsh Creek community center and Buffaloe Aquatic Center were both evacuated. K-9 officers searched in an area along the woods near the intersection of Tarheel Club Road and Old Milburnie Road.
The exit from eastbound Interstate 540 to Buffaloe Road was also shut down and traffic diverted to the north.
Law enforcement tracked Austin Thompson to an outbuilding on a property on McConnell Oliver Drive, about six miles from his home, and took him into custody.
Austin Thompson was taken to WakeMed, where he was listed in critical condition. Sources tell WRAL News that he has multiple injuries, including a gunshot wound to the head. His family has not made a public comment about the shooting spree.
Although witnesses reported seeing "a long gun," police have not said what type of weapon was used in the shootings or where the suspect got it.
Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said that if Thompson survives, she expects he would be charged as an adult, despite his age.
"In consideration of the mass number of lives lost, it’s appropriate that this case be handled in Superior Court and this individual prosecuted as an adult."
