The families of victims of Raleigh's mass shooting allege that a private security company hired to patrol in the Hedingham neighborhood is witholding evidence that would help in their lawsuit.
In a motion filed April 29, 2026, the lawyers for those families asked the court to compel Capitol Special Police LLC to deliver GPS data, video, emails and other documents about their officer on duty on the day of the shooting, any complaints the company had related to the family of shooter Austin Thompson and any records they have about the events of Oct. 13, 2022, when Thompson killed five people in the neighborhood and along the Neuse River Greenway.
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Thompson, then 15, shot and killed his brother inside the family home, then roamed through the neighborhood and onto the greenway, killing four others and wounding two more. He was convicted in February 2026 of murder and sentenced to life in prison without the chance for parole.
The families of the victims -- Marcille Gardner, Casey Clark, Nicole Connors, Susan Karnatz, Mary Marshall and Gabriel Torres -- have sued the Hedingham Community Association, Capitol Special Police and Capitol Officer Nicole Locke, Thompson and his parents, claiming those entities failed to prevent the mass shooting. A motion filed on April 29 requested that trial in the case be postponed until January 2027, to allow for additional time for discovery and a chance to discuss "further settlement opportunities."
The "motion to compel" alleges that Capitol Special Police made excuses and failed to provide the evidence the plaintiffs want, which they claim will show that Locke -- scheduled to patrol Hedingham on the afternoon of the attack -- was late to work, did not know the neighborhood well and waited to to call police after hearing from four residents that they had heard gunfire.
The lawyers wrote, "CSP’s GPS data and video footage can provide the only objective, contemporaneous account of where its sole officer, Nicole Locke, was, how she moved through the community, and how she responded in the face of an active shooter."
Lawyers for the plaintiff wrote in requesting the documents from Capitol Special Police, "Defendant CSP has a severe "promise-versus-delivery" problem. The company sold Hedingham a dedicated patrol that was armed, roving, visible, GPS-monitored, and capable of handling criminal-safety issues."
In reponse to the first request for data and documents, the motion says, a Capitol Special Police lawyer said any GPS data from Locke's vehicle "(and apparently video footage) was deleted, and that Capitol Special Police lost all emails prior to May 2023 due to an Internet service provider change."
The motion continues, "Despite 'Chief of Police' Roy Taylor stating to the media that CSP had received a complaint about the Thompsons, in his deposition he now denies that CSP ever received a complaint about the Thompsons.
"To date, no GPS data, video footage, or emails from Defendant CSP have been produced in discovery from before or around the time of the shooting."
The plaintiffs are asking the court to compel Capitol Special Police to immediately provide all the requested data adding, "In the event the Court determines that Defendant Capitol Special Police, LLC failed to preserve, destroyed, lost, or otherwise spoliated responsive evidence, imposing sanctions as are just and proper."
Hedingham victims' families struggle to get data to prove suit
In January 2026, the court ordered the City of Raleigh to provide summaries of certain police calls to the Hedingham neighborhood in the months before the October 2022 mass shooting.
The families' civil suit alleges that Austin Thompson, then 15, posed a known threat to his neighbors. The information from the police summaries can only be used for the civil lawsuit and can only be seen by the court, lawyers, experts and others directly involved in the case.