Raleigh shooting – latest: Suspect, 15, will face charges as an adult after killing five
Police describe suspect as white, juvenile male
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Five people were killed by a shooter who opened fire along a walking trail in North Carolina’s capital city on Thursday and eluded police for hours before he was cornered and arrested, police said.
Law enforcement officials identified the victims of the shooting on Friday. An off-duty police officer was among those killed by the suspect, whom police described as a white, 15-year-old male.
The suspect was arrested around 9.37pm after evading capture for hours and hiding inside a home, authorities said.
Gunfire broke out around 5pm, along the Neuse River Greenway in a residential area northeast of downtown, Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said.
Officers from numerous law enforcement agencies swarmed the area, closing roads and warning residents to stay inside while they searched for the shooter.
Two people, including another police officer, were also taken to hospitals.
“Tonight terror has reached our doorstep. The nightmare of every community has come to Raleigh. This is a senseless horrific and infuriating act of violence that has been committed,” Governor Roy Cooper told reporters.
ICYMI: Suspect arrested after being cornered in a home, police confirm
The shooting suspected who eluded police for hours after killing five people, including an off-duty police officer, has now been arrested, Raleigh police say.
The suspect was arrested around 9.37pm, authorities said. His identity and age weren’t released. He is thought to be a teenage boy wearing camouflage.
Earlier there were reports that the suspected gunman has been “contained” inside a barn.
Mass shooter taken into custody with life-threatening injuries
The suspect who was arrested late Thursday night after a mass shooting in Raleigh left at least five dead was reportedly taken into custody with what authorities are describing as life-threatening injuries, according to a memo from the Department of Homeland Security.
The memo did not disclose if those injuries were self-inflicted, ABC 11 reported.
Police search home near site of shooting early Friday morning
Police officers were spotted searching a home in the Raleigh neighbourhood of Headingham early on Friday morning, just a short distance away from where the mass shooting was carried out the night before.
WRAL reported that officers were seen in the early hours of Friday entering a home located on Sahalee Way, which is just a 2-minute drive away from Osprey Cove Drive, where a shooter shot and killed at least five people which included and off-duty Raleigh police officer while two more were injured.
Officers were expected to provide an update on the case on Friday morning.
Raleigh massacre is the deadliest mass shooting in North Carolina this year, report says
As the year begins to draw to a close, the death tally for the numbing gun violence epidemic in America continues to grow.
So far, more than 34,000 people have died in shootings in the US in 2022, with more than half of those deaths being recorded as suicide, according to the Gun Violence Archive website.
That same database recorded the mass shooting in Raleigh on Thursday as the deadliest of 17 shootings in North Carolina so far this year.
“We must stop this mindless violence in America. We must address gun violence. We have much to do, and tonight we have much to mourn,” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said at a press conference after the mass slaughter on Thursday.
Victims identified
Raleigh police confirmed that the five people killed during a mass shooting on Thursday evening as Nicole Connors, 52, Susan Karnatz, 49, Mary Marshall, 35, Gabriel Torres, 29, and a 16-year-old minor who authorities did not name.
Marcille Gardner, 59 was wounded and is still recovering in the hospital. Casey Joseph Clark, 33, was also wounded but was released from a hospital after receiving treatment.
ABC11 reports that the suspect, who police describe as a 15-year-old white male, was also injured and transported to the hospital with life threatening injuries. It is unclear if the injuries were self-inflicted.
Read more in Johanna Chisholm’s story at The Independent below:
Raleigh shooting: What we know about 15-year-old suspect and five victims killed
The suspect was arrested after an hours-long manhunt
'Lights on, doors locked', residents describe fear they are living under tonight
Hundreds of residents in Raleigh were forced to live under stay-inside orders after the alleged gunman who killed five hid in an unknown house and eluded police for hours. The suspect is now in police custody.
Brooke Medina, who lives in the neighbourhood bordering the greenway, described the scenes when she saw about two dozen police cars, both marked and unmarked, race toward the residential area about from Raleigh’s downtown at about 5.15pm.
She then saw ambulances speeding the other direction, toward the closest hospital.
She and her husband, who was working from home with their four children, started reaching out to neighbours and realised there was a shelter-in-place order.
The family closed all of their window blinds, locked the doors and congregated in an upstairs hallway together, said Ms Medina, who works as a communications vice president at a think tank.
The family listened to the police scanner and watched local news before going back downstairs once the danger seemed to have moved further away from their home.
“We’re just going to hunker down for the rest of the night and be very vigilant. Keep all of our lights on, doors locked,” she said.
She described the neighbourhood known as Hedingham as a sprawling, dense, tree-lined community that’s full of single-family homes, duplexes and townhomes that are more moderately priced compared to other parts of the Raleigh area.
Ms Medina said she often takes her kids on bike rides along the greenway during the day, but typically brings pepper spray along just in case.
“There’s a lot of places one could disappear,” she said.
Allison Greenawalt, 29, who also lives in the neighbourhood, said she was sitting on the couch with her cat around 5pm when she heard “three shots in a pretty rapid succession”.
“I was sitting in our house with the lights turned off and the windows closed for the majority of the evening, just waiting to hear that” the shooter had been arrested, she said.
The suspect was critically injured when police arrested him — what happened?
The 15-year-old suspect in the mass shooting that killed five people in Raleigh evaded police for four hours. After he was eventually cornered and arrested, he required emergency medical services from an unspecified injury.
Police described the suspect’s wounds as “life-threatening.”
At this time it is unclear if the suspect exchanged gunfire with the police or another individual or the wounds were self-inflicted.
Read more about the victims and the arrest in Graig Graziosi’s story below:
Five victims killed in Raleigh mass shooting are identified as teen suspect arrested
Police have not yet determined what motivated the attack
Congresswoman Deborah Ross zeros in on gun violence after shooting
Democratic Congresswoman Deborah Ross of North Carolina’s 2nd Congressional District issued a statement lamenting US gun violence following the mass shooting in Raleigh. The city is located in the 2nd District.
“How many communities and families must experience this senseless bloodshed before we finally say enough is enough? Gun violence has plagued our schools, houses of worship, and other public spaces for far too long,” she wrote. “I am devastated that Raleigh is next in the long line of American communities forever changed by a mass shooting. No American should be forced to endure this kind of unspeakable anguish and grief.”
Her full comments can be found here.
Witness describes watching suspected shooter walking calmly during attack
A Raleigh resident who saw the suspected shooter has offered more insights into the individual’s appearance and demeanour during the attack.
Robert Anderson, who lives near the scene of the shooting, told NBC’s TODAY SHOW that he was lounging on his back deck when he heard the shooting. He looked out and saw the suspect walking away from the Greenway Trail with a gun in hand.
“He had a camouflage shirt, camouflage pants, black boots, he also had a backpack that looked like it was filled to the brim,” he said in an interview that aired Friday. “He was walking, and when I tell you he was walking, it was like nothing had happened,” Anderson explained. “He was just walking looking straight forward, he had his gun on his side and it was pointed downwards and he was just walking.”
Soon-to-be-wed woman walking her dog among those killed in Raleigh shooting
Mary Marshall, 34, was walking her dog on Thursday when a 15-year-old suspect allegedly began gunning down people on a trail near Raleigh, North Carolina.
Her fiance, Robert Steele, shared the pain he was feeling in a social media post the following day. “The love of my life, Mary Marshall, was killed last night by a cowardly individual,” Mr Steele wrote on Friday. “She was shot while walking our dog. I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to do. My world has been completely destroyed…”
Ms Marshall was one of five people killed on Thursday. Two others were wounded, with one still in critical condition.