Victims in Raleigh's Hedingham shooting remembered for love, smiles, dog walks, big plans

Chief of Police Estella Patterson said a 15-year-old opened fire in the streets of the Hedingham neighborhood and an adjacent greenway Thursday afternoon.

In the aftermath of the shootings, Knightdale postponed Friday night's football game scheduled against Rolesville. The teams will play at 6:30 p.m. Monday.

Torres was a husband and father. His neighbor, Elizabeth Starliper, said Torres had a toddler, and was relatively new to the Raleigh Police Department.

Karnatz was an avid runner. Her husband, Tom, said she was a loving wife and mother to three boys ages 10, 13 and 14.

Her sister told WRAL News that Karnatz was killed on the trail that she ran every day.

Close friend and running buddy Kim Meeker said Karnatz "was truly one of the kindest people I’ve ever met, and she always had a smile on her face."

Mary Marshall was walking her dogs on the greenway when she heard shots. As she ran home, she called her fiancé and asked him to come home. She was shot and killed along the way, according to her sister, Meaghan McCrickard.

Oct. 24 would have been her birthday.

McCrickard told NBC News that her family is considering changing what would have been her wedding day on Oct. 29 into a celebration of life.

"We had big plans this month," McCrickard said. "It was going to be this weekend-long fun time. She was so excited all of her people across the world were going be in the same place same time."

She described her sister who is three years younger than her as “the most amazing, wonderful person" and "my best friend."

"She was the face of fun, the definition of quirky and weird (in all the best ways), and accepted everyone as they were," a friend told WRAL News. "Never a dull moment."

Nicole Conners loved dogs. She died alongside her Jack Russell mix, Sami, said her husband, Tracey Howard. He found them together lying on the porch.

"She was a bubbly, fun-loving person," he said.

Woodrow Glass, a 74-year-old retiree and neighbor of Conners, said he talked to her nearly every day as she walked her small dog.

“She was friendly with everybody in the neighborhood, spoke with everybody ... and was really respected here. And we’re going to miss her," he said.

Howard said his wife was a “caregiver” who left a job in human resources to care for her mother after she had a stroke. "Her passion was taking care of her family," he said.

Police said shooting suspect Austin Thompson is in critical condition at WakeMed.

In Friday morning's press conference, Chief of Police Estella Patterson said the initial shooting occurred in the streets of the Hedingham neighborhood before the shooter ran onto the greenway, where more people were shot.

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.

"If this poor lady I saw that was jogging is hurt ... I don't know," he described with emotion.

An investigation into the shooting is underway.

Anyone with information is asked to call 919-996-1193.