‘We had big plans together’: What we know about the victims of Raleigh mass shooting
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Raleigh mass shooting in Hedingham neighborhood
On Oct. 13, 2022, seven people were shot in Raleigh, NC, in the Hedingham neighborhood near the Neuse River Greenway Trail. Five were killed, including a Raleigh police officer. High school student Austin Thompson was charged with their murders. Read The News & Observer’s ongoing coverage of the mass shooting, Thompson’s guilty plea and his sentencing hearing.
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For hours Thursday night, residents of the Hedingham community in East Raleigh huddled in their homes under police orders, anxious and confused. Why would someone open fire on people in the neighborhood? Who’s been hurt?
Friday morning, after the alleged shooter had been taken into custody and five bodies had been carefully carried away, residents found out who had died. These were people who lived across the street, or on another block, with houses and lives that looked a lot like theirs.
Maybe they had nodded at each while out walking dogs on the Neuse River Greenway that connects the development to the river and draws people out of their houses here in a way that doesn’t happen in other places. Maybe they had said hello.
Now they know their names.
Raleigh Police Officer Gabriel Jesús Torres, 29
Torres was off-duty at the time of the shooting, but was on his way to work, Raleigh Police Chief Estella Patterson said. He was not in uniform or in his patrol car when he was shot, she said.
Patterson said Torres had been with the department for 18 months. Before that, Torres served as a Marine at Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville.
Torres leaves behind his wife and one child, Patterson said.
READ MORE: What we know about Gabriel Torres, the police officer killed in Raleigh mass shooting
Nicole Connors, 52
Connors lived in the neighborhood with her husband, Tracey Howard, 57. They had been married for five years. They met on Facebook, Howard said Friday afternoon, as he sat on the porch where he’d come home a day earlier to find his wife after she’d been shot.
The assailant also shot and killed the dog Howard and Connors shared. The dog was at Nicole Connors’ feet, Howard said, but now, on Friday afternoon, he was thinking of the time he’d shared with his wife.
At first, he said, he was drawn to Connors’ smile. That’s what came through in the pictures online. Then he got to know her more.“She was just a fun-loving person,” Howard said. “She was good people. She was a good person. And she took care of me. She took care of her own family.”
Connors worked in human resources. Howard is a truck driver. They’d been renting their home in the Hedingham neighborhood for the past three years, and saving up to buy a place of their own. They liked dinner dates and “just having fun,” Howard said, struggling to get the words out.
“I used to tease her all the time about any and everything,” he said. He’d gone to Lowe’s to buy light bulbs late Thursday afternoon. He returned home to find his wife’s body on the porch.
The alleged shooter lived two doors down from the couple. In the mailbox in front of the couple’s home — in the house where they made their lives — there was a bullet hole, and a small piece of paper marking it for evidence.
Susan Karnatz, 49
Karnatz lived in Hedingham with her husband, Tom. He grieved his wife in a Facebook post after the shooting, saying the couple had big plans for their lives with their three sons and as empty nesters when the boys are grown. His tribute, a poem posted early Friday morning, said:
“We had big plans together
And we had little plans together.
We had plans together for big adventures
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.
Always together.
Now those plans are laid to waste.
We have big memories together
And we have little memories together.
We have memories together of joyous occasions
And memories together of plain times in between.
We have memories together from before the boys
And memories, many memories together with the boys.
Always and for ever, memories together.”
A hundred notes of condolence poured in in response to the post. Several talked about Sue Karnatz’s love for running, her kindness toward others and her dedication to social justice.
Mary Marshall, 34
Marshall lived in Hedingham. Her step-grandmother, Donna Marshall, said Mary had served in the Navy, attended culinary school, was very family oriented and moved back to the Raleigh area three years ago after spending the prior two years with her in Orlando.
“She loved to go to the beach, and she was an absolute fanatic about Disney World,” Donna Marshall said.
While in Florida, Mary Marshall worked at a Starbucks and did clerical work for a dentist. She had a terrier mix named Scruff that had picked her when she visited a shelter, her step-grandmother said. (Mary Marshall’s neighbors in Hedingham told the N&O she had a dog named Scruffy.)
“When she was in the Navy, she was stationed in California, and the story she told was she was at an animal rescue and just sitting on the floor, and Scruff came up and sat in her lap,” Donna Marshall said. Mary Marshall’s parents, Ginny and Tom Marshall, live in Clayton.
“It’s going to be extremely difficult for her mom and dad and her sister and her close family,” she said. “It’s just going to be awful.”
Her fiance, Robert Steele, asked for help finding her the night of the shootings in a post to a Hedingham Facebook group. He later wrote: “I was informed that my beautiful, loving, amazing fiance was killed on the trail tonight. Thank you all for your love and support.”
Wake Technical Community College President Scott Ralls tweeted Friday that Mary Marshall “was known by faculty and students as a hard worker with a determination to succeed, and was one of six Wake Tech culinary students selected to study in France prior to graduation. Wake Tech remembers Mary today, and sends prayers for all the victims and their families.”
James Thompson, 16
Thompson was a junior at Knightdale High School.
It was supposed to be homecoming weekend at the school, with a tailgating event planned before the Friday night football game against Rolesville High School. The game has since been rescheduled for Monday.
On the school’s Facebook page, someone posted a note offering prayers “for the Knightdale High family, the student’s family and friends of the teen victim of the Neuse River Greenway shooting yesterday.”
School Principal Keith Richardson issued a statement saying, “This is an incredibly difficult time for our school community as well as the broader Raleigh community. We have learned that junior James Thompson was killed in yesterday’s tragic shooting on the Neuse River Greenway. It is an unexpected loss and we are saddened by it.
“Our condolences, thoughts, and prayers to out to James’ family, the other victims, their families and all who have been impacted by yesterday’s events.
“We all will need time to process the emotions we are feeling right now.”
Richardson said school counselors and members of the district’s student services team, including Spanish-speaking members, would be on campus Friday to support students and staff. The school system has partnered with Transitions GriefCare to help, Richardson said, and their services would be available to anyone in the community at no cost.
“These are heavy moments that we will work through together as a school family,” Richardson said.
Wake School Board Chair Lindsay Mahaffey and Superintendent Catty Moore also issued a statement, saying, “Like you, we are shocked, saddened and brokenhearted. Our hearts go out to the victims’ loved ones, and our community continues to seek answers around this tragedy and solutions to prevent such unspeakable events in the future.
“As we all work to make sense of this, our utmost concern as always is how our students, families and staff are doing,” the statement said.
READ MORE: Knightdale High School postpones homecoming events after student is killed
Knightdale High, about 7 miles from Hedingham, has about 1,600 students. Richardson, the principal, was named 2021 Principal of the Year. The award cited Richardson’s leadership, coaching, his celebration of staff achievements and a commitment to strengthening the school’s community relationships.
Reginald Stepney said there are a number of schools where he could teach close to his home in Wake Forest, but he drives 30 miles each way to teach physical science at Knightdale High.
“It’s a great school,” said Stepney, who has taught at Knightdale High for 12 years. He’s also a pastor at Fulfilled Promise Tabernacle in Raleigh.
Until the shooting, it had been a good week at the school, Stepney said, with students and staff celebrating “spirit week” in the lead-up to homecoming.
“Students and staff had great spirit,” Stepney said, which they showed by dressing up according to the different themes of the day: blast-from-the-past day, comfy clothes day and colors day, with each class year denoted by a different color.
In what may be a testament to how common mass shootings have become, the school operated on a normal schedule Friday, despite the fact that one student had been killed, allegedly by another student, his own brother.
When asked about the mood at the school on Friday, Stepney said, “It was as usual.”
Staff writers Josh Shaffer, Aaron Sánchez-Guerra and Korie Dean contributed to this report.
This story will be updated as additional information is available.
This story was originally published October 14, 2022 at 10:47 AM.
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