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.
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In one of the four 911 calls shared with the press, the operator told the caller to “tell me exactly what you see”.
The caller said he “saw a kid shoot somebody,” according to WBTW. “He’s running back through the woods.”
“I’m currently in my room — there’s people out front in a like a cul-de-sac and I think someone just got shot. I think I heard three or four gunshots,” another 911 caller said.
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The victims: Nicole Connors
Connors, 52, was the matriarch of her extended family, the one who “got things done,” her husband Tracey Howard told The Associated Press.
When her father died, she was the one who went to Veterans Affairs to straighten things out — using “choice words” — to ensure he was buried in a veterans cemetery, Howard said. She also left her job in human resources to care for her mother after she had a stroke.
“Anything that had to be done, she was going to do it,” Howard said. “And she was going to make sure it was done right.”
Connors and her husband liked to get out of the house and explore Raleigh’s restaurant scene. They had tickets for the next Black Panther film, coming out in November, and planned to go to the North Carolina State Fair this weekend.
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The victims: Susan Karnatz
Her husband, Tom Karnatz, told the AP that she “was a very loving wife and amazing mother to our three sons. We’re absolutely heartbroken and miss her dearly.”
Karnatz, 49, was an avid runner who frequented the greenway where some of the shootings occurred. Two cars parked in the driveway had matching 26.2 stickers – marking the mileage of a marathon. The license plate of a minivan said “RUNNR.”
In a Facebook post, Tom Karnatz wrote that he and his wife had big — and little — plans together.
“We had plans together for big adventures,” he wrote. “And plans together for the mundane days in between. We had plans together with the boys. And we had plans together as empty nesters. We had plans together for growing old ... Now those plans are laid to waste.”
When did the shooting start?
Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin confirmed the deaths at a news conference hours after the violent incident unfolded on Thursday at around 5pm.
Four citizens were among the victims as well as an off-duty Raleigh police officer, she confirmed.
During that press conference, the mayor also said that a second police officer from a Raleigh Police K-9 unit had been shot and was being treated at a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, while two others had been hospitalised for their wounds. A K9 from the force has also been injured in the shootout.
The victims: Mary Marshall
Marshall, 34, was killed while walking her dog Scruff and was supposed to get married on Oct. 29, her sister told NBC News.
“Her fiancé Rob, he was just the love of her life,” Meaghan McCrickard told NBC. “I think we’re going to still do a celebration of life, that’s the plan, for the date of the wedding.”
“She’s got a friend coming from Japan, somebody coming from Florida, from Texas,” McCrickard said. “As excited as she was to be married, I know she was more excited to have all the people she loved the most at the same place at the same time.”
When the shooting started, Marshall was walking Scruff on the Neuse River Greenway, her sister told NBC.
“She had called her fiancé Rob and said, ‘I’m walking the dog, I’m hearing these gunshots, can you come home?’ And that was the last conversation that they had,” McCrickard said.
Marshall’s step-grandmother, Donna Marshall, told the Raleigh News & Observer that Mary had served in the Navy and attended culinary school before moving back to the Raleigh area three years ago.
“She loved to go to the beach, and she was an absolute fanatic about Disney World,” Donna Marshall told the newspaper.
When did the suspect get arrested?
After evading arrest for several hours, officers confirmed that they had successfully apprehended the suspect believed to be responsible for the mass shooting at 9.37pm.
In addition to the Raleigh police force, multiple other agencies were tapped to assist in the manhunt for the suspect.
Witnesses who saw the violent episode unfold confirmed to WRAL that they’d seen the young man roaming through a backyard in the neighbourhood dressed in camouflage.
“I saw him basically pass my house in the backyard. He had a long-barrel shotgun. He was dressed in camo. He had a full backpack on that was also camouflage,” a witness in Raleigh described to the local news outlet.
Police provided scant details on Thursday about how the arrest took place, issuing updates only through their Twitter account where they first warned residents in the affected areas – McConnell Oliver Drive, Tarheel Club Drive, and Old Milburnie Road – to remain indoors.
And then later, about an hour after stating that the situation remained an “active investigation” that the “suspect is now in custody”.
ABC 11 reported that authorities had reportedly cornered the suspect in a barn off Buffaloe Road, located about a 12-minute drive away from the scene of the shooting.
The victims: Gabriel Torres
Torres, 29, was on his way to work when he was fatally shot in the Hedingham neighborhood, police said. Raleigh Police Chief Estella D. Patterson said Torres was not in uniform or in his patrol car at the time of the shooting, according to the News & Observer.
Torres leaves behind a wife and child, the chief said. Torres was on the job for 18 months. Before that, he served as a U.S. Marine at Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville.
The Raleigh Police Protective Association, an advocacy group for officers, said in a statement on Friday that it’s “in the process of setting up fundraising efforts that are approved and authorized by the family.”
“We ask all of you to please pray and keep in your thoughts Officer Torres and the other victims of this senseless act of evil,” the organization said on Facebook.
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