RALEIGH, N.C. — Just after 5 p.m. on Oct. 13, 2022, Austin Thompson, then 15, allegedly shot and killed his older brother in their family home. He took a shotgun and a handgun and left the house, killing another four people in Raleigh’s Hedingham neighborhood and injuring two more, police and the district attorney’s office say.
In the year since the shooting spree in northeast Raleigh, the victims, their families, the first responders and the community have worked to heal. The Hedingham neighborhood and the city of Raleigh have events in the coming days to mark the anniversary of the mass shooting.
Five people died that day: Raleigh Police Officer Gabriel Torres, James Roger Thompson, Mary Elizabeth Marshall, Nicole Connors and Susan Karnatz. Marcille Lynn Gardner and Raleigh Police Officer C. Clark were injured in the shooting, according to police.
The suspect, Austin Thompson, is now 16. Last week, a Wake County Superior Court judge moved the case from juvenile court to Superior Court, where Thompson will be tried as an adult.
Because the case was in juvenile court, the district attorney had released very few details about the charges and the teenager’s condition. When he was eventually arrested in an outbuilding about 2 miles from his home, Thompson was found shot but still alive.
In August, a grand jury in Wake County returned indictments against Thompson for five counts of murder and two for attempted murder.
At 5:09 p.m., the first 911 call came in to Raleigh police, with reports of multiple gunshots. A teenager was dressed in camouflage and carrying a shotgun, witnesses said, according to police.
The first officers on the scene found two women shot, one in a driveway and the other on a front porch, police said.
A Raleigh police officer, who lived in the neighborhood, Gabriel Torres, was in his car about to go to work when he was shot and killed, police said.
The shooting spree continued to a nearby greenway, where two more people were shot, according to police. Law enforcement from local and state agencies descended on the neighborhood. People sheltered in their homes and much of that corner of the city was shut down as officers launched a massive manhunt for the shooter.
Police said they found the alleged shooter, Austin Thompson, in what they described as a “barn-like structure” 2 miles from where the killing spree began.
Thompson got into a shootout with police, hitting one officer at about 6:45 p.m., according to the department. They surrounded the building, according to a report from Raleigh police, and ordered the teen to come out.
A SWAT team went into the building at about 9:35 p.m. to find Thompson on the ground with one gunshot wound, police said. He was taken to a nearby hospital in critical condition.
Rob Steele was at work when he got a call from his fiance, Mary Marshall, at 5:13 p.m. The dog had slipped out and she was looking for the dog on the greenway near their home. She was hearing gunshots, she said, and he needed to come home.
Steele tried to call his fiance as he drove home, but she didn’t pick up, he said in an interview with Spectrum News 1. He hoped she dropped her phone. He hoped she was OK.
By the time Steele got back to the neighborhood, Hedingham had been sealed off by police as they searched for the shooter. Police directed Steele to a nearby athletic center to wait.
Steele asked police for any information on Marshall. At about 8:30 p.m., a police sergeant went to check in the neighborhood for him. About half an hour later, another officer started asking about his fiance’s tattoos.
“That’s when I knew. But I didn’t want to accept,” he said. “Sgt. Powell came back, probably around 9:15, I think, to officially let me and Mary’s parents know she had been killed.”
She was 35.
“Most of the night after that is pretty much just a blur of sobbing and hugging and eventually getting home,” he said.
Steele and Marshall were supposed to get married 15 days after the shooting.
James Thompson, brother of the accused shooter, was 16 when he died that day. Nicole Connors was 52. Susan Karnatz was 49.
Torres, the Raleigh police officer about to go to work for the night shift, was 29.
The Rev. Paul Anderson is the chaplain for the Raleigh Police Department. He was in Georgia as the shooting unfolded but rushed back to Raleigh.
“Because many people saw something they didn’t envision they’d see. You know, it has to be a very difficult thing for someone to identify the remains of a loved one. And so, therefore, spiritual support is needed. And we tried to support all the officers as well because we had one of Raleigh's own, one of our officers who perished,” Anderson said in a recent interview.
“I remember meeting Officer Torres when he came through the academy. It strikes home personally. I got a chance to be at his service as well as have a conversation with his wife and his daughter. And still to this day, we keep the relationship going,” Anderson said.
The pastor said the first time he met Jasmin Torres, the widow of Officer Torres, neither of them spoke.
“Well, it was a hug. It was a big hug. It was a long hug to say, I'm here for you,” he said. “How can any of us bring comfort to someone in such a tragic time such as this?”
The five killed that day left behind families, friends and a community in mourning. Every resident in the Hedingham neighborhood has their story from that evening.
Some were stuck in their homes and didn’t know what was going on as they watched police cars scream by. Some were stuck outside the neighborhood, blocked by police. Everyone called loved ones and neighbors.
“You couldn’t go home, everything was blocked off,” said Amy Huller. Her husband was at home as the shooting unfolded. She called him and told him to close the garage and keep the door locked.
“We were all just kind of in shock,” she said. “I think it has brought us closer together as a neighborhood.”
A memorial quickly sprung up on the Hedingham sign at an entrance to the neighborhood. Flowers, candles and pictures of the dead lined the brick wall. The governor ordered state flags to be flown at half-staff.
“Just because something bad has happened, doesn’t mean that the rest of the good in the rest of us won’t come out. It does,” said Steele, who lost his fiance in the shooting.
There is no trial date set for the suspected shooter.
"This is a process we're at the beginning of in Superior Court. We appreciate the public's patience as this plays out," Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said in a recent interview.
"I hope that they know we will do everything we can to make sure that justice is sought in this case, not only for the families in this case who obviously are our priority, but also our community," she said.
The grand jury handed up the indictments in August and Thompson was charged as an adult on Oct. 4, almost a year since the shooting.
Thompson, now 16, is being held in a juvenile facility until the trial, Freeman said.
The city and the Hedingham neighborhood are planning several events to mark the anniversary of the shooting.
On Friday, community members are invited to gather at the Raleigh Municipal Building at 3:30 p.m.
“This will be a quiet ceremony to honor the victims and survivors of this tragic event and to carry their light into the world,” the city said in a news release.
On Saturday, the city is hosting a second event from 10 a.m. to noon at Nash Square.
“This event will honor the people who responded to the many calls for help the day of the shooting, from our public safety professionals and 911 team to the medical team at WakeMed,” according to the city.
“We have also invited many community partners to share resources on health, nutrition, mental health and gun violence prevention," the release said.
Spectrum News 1's Patrick Thomas and Tim Boyum contributed reporting.