Austin Thompson, the Raleigh teen accused of shooting six people, killing five of them in October 2022, will plead guilty to all charges, his lawyers announced on Tuesday.
The intent to plead guilty was filed one day before Thompson was scheduled for a hearing ahead of a trial planned for February. That hearing is still scheduled for Wednesday. It's likely Thompson would enter his plea at that time.
Other WRAL Top Stories
Thompson, who was 15 when he initiated the shooting spree that took him from his home in the Hedingham neighborhood to the Neuse River greenway, "recognizes the deep pain he has caused," his lawyers said in giving notice of the intention to plead guilty.
"We are ready to move forward. Our thoughts are with the families of the victims," Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said.
The plea allows Thompson and his victims' families to avoid a trial.
For Robert Steele, whose fiancée was among those killed, that is a form of relief.
"Him pleading guilty saves a lot of time and brings closure," Steele said. "It saves a trial. It saves having to go through all of the gory details. Him accepting that responsibility on the on the legal side just makes this process easier."
Thompson, who had a gunshot wound to the head when officers found him hiding in a shed hours after the shootings, has a brain injury that, his lawyers said, "has made it such that Austin cannot explain why he committed this shooting."
Thompson's lawyers, Kellie Mannette and public defender Deonte Thomas, wrote, "After lengthy discussions with his attorneys about how a trial would proceed, he has decided he wishes to save the community and the victims from as much additional infliction of trauma as possible."
Thompson will still face a sentencing hearing, but because he was under 18 at the time of his crimes, the death penalty is off the table. Given the chance for victims and lawyers to speak, a sentencing hearing could take multiple days before the judge issues a ruling.
Steele said he would be there, and plans to make a victim impact statement.
"That young man took the best person I had ever met away from me," Steele said. "I want to look him in the face when he faces justice. Watching him get sentenced and hopefully sent away for the rest of his life will be the closure that I need."
Who are the Raleigh mass shooting victims?
On Oct. 13, 2022, police say, Thompson killed first his brother, James Thompson, inside their Hedingham neighborhood home, then fled through the neighborhood to the nearby Neuse River Greenway, shooting another four people along the way.
Friends Nicole Connors, 52, and Marcille "Lynn" Gardner were shot on Sahalee Way.
Connors died; Gardner survived but spent weeks in the hospital.
Raleigh police officer, Gabriel Torres, 29, was on his way to work when he was shot outside his home on Osprey Cove Drive.
Mary Marshall, 34, and Susan Karnatz, 49, were shot on the greenway.
Marshall's fiancé, Steele, described her as kind, loud, and beautiful inside and out.
"She was the example of the person that I wanted to be. She was the reason I wanted to be a better person. She's the reason I continue to want to be a better person," he said.
Raleigh police officer Casey Clark was injured during the search for the shooter.
Thompson was charged with five counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, two counts of assault with deadly weapon with intent to kill and one count of assault with firearm on law enforcement officer.
Court documents show the teenager was found in a shed with a shotgun, $772 in cash, multiple pistols, "projectiles," knives, rifles, rifle magazines, shell casings, ammunition rounds and bullets.
Inside the Thompson home, officers found 11 firearms and 170 boxes of ammunition. Detectives also found what appeared to be a confession note signed by Thompson describing the killing of his brother, James Thompson, inside the home.
Alan Thompson, father of Austin and James, was cited for failure to secure a weapon linked to the gun allegedly used in the mass shooting. He pleaded guilty in September 2024 and was sentenced to one year of unsupervised probation.
Focus turns to sentence for Austin Thompson
As recently as last week, Thompson's lawyers were filing motions to ask the court to allow for his brain injury. They said in those documents that Thompson suffered a seizure on Jan. 11, 2026, that they attributed to the stress of the scheduled trial.
"The stress of this trial obviously would be enormous for everyone involved, but particularly the defendant," said Chris Detwiler, a criminal defense attorney not associated with Thompson's case.
Mannette and Thomas had also argued that statements Thompson made to police after the shooting should not be allowed in court because he was "medicated, brain-injured [and] under constant police surveillance."
They said when he woke up in the hospital after the shootings he demonstrated symptoms of a severe brain injury, including confusion, poor memory, poor focus and impulsivity.
His defense argued that because of that injury, the statements that he gave to police were "confused and chaotic."
Detwiler said the plea filing is "a pretty clear indication that the intent is now to switch gears from trial mode to plea mode."
In including sympathy for the victims and the community in their filing, Detwiler said, "I think they're going to be more focused on trying to achieve a better result from the judge than they would have been from the jury at trial.
"They've started to take the steps to try to make sure that they're saying all the right things to get the best outcome possible for him."