James Thompson, 16: Raleigh shooting victim was a fan of basketball, cooking, fishing
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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 ongoing civil lawsuit.
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The pastor was eloquent, the music poignant and perfect. But it was the kid in the oversized suit who set the mood for the funeral of James Roger Thompson on Thursday night.
The boy was swimming in a dark jacket, its quarters hanging almost to his knees as he made his way into a pew in the big sanctuary at Trinity Baptist Church in Raleigh. Inches of excess length in his pants crumpled on the tops of his shoes and bunched around his ankles.
On a school night, this child in adult mourning clothes was attending the funeral of a 16-year-old who had been slain by his own younger brother.
Dr. Jeff Roberts, senior pastor at Trinity, began his message by acknowledging Thompson’s mother, Elise, who had been bringing her son to church since he was in 2nd grade.
That was just eight years ago.
‘All kinds of questions’
Roberts knew the incongruity — the illogic — of it all lay on the hearts of the more than 250 people gathered to honor Thompson’s life.
“In these moments we try to make sense of what does not make sense, we try to comprehend that which is incomprehensible,” Roberts said.
“We have all kinds of questions. Normal questions,” he said. “Because we believe if we could just get some answers to some questions, we would be able to somehow process that which makes no sense to us.
“It gives us a little bit of sense of control if we could just have some of those answers,” Roberts said.
As of Thursday, there were few answers, even in a preliminary report released earlier in the day by the Raleigh Police Department summarizing the investigation so far into the Oct. 13 shootings that took Thompson’s life and the lives of four others, and resulted in serious injuries to two more.
While the report didn’t name the assailant, Elise and Alan Thompson had done so, in a statement saying their younger son, Austin, “inflicted immeasurable pain on the Raleigh community, and we are overcome with grief for the innocent lives lost.”
Roberts spoke the names of the others shot and killed: Nicole Connors, Susan Karnatz, Mary Marshall, Gabriel Torres. He asked those present to pray for the families of the dead, and to pray for healing for those injured: Lynn Gardner and Casey Clark.
Thompson’s was the first funeral for any of the shooting victims.
“We are a community who is grieving with this family,” he said of the Thompsons. “Grieving with so many other families as well.”
Austin Thompson, hospitalized in critical condition with a gunshot wound, wasn’t mentioned by name during the celebration of his brother’s life, but a video that played silently on the wide screen behind the pulpit before the service featured many photos of the boys together and with their parents.
Respectful, and smiling a lot
There were mundane family moments of pedaling bikes, posing in front of the Christmas tree or bundled in life vests riding on a boat. There were snapshots of milestones: holding up a birthday cake, flashing a certificate of achievement.
Thompson packed what he could into a short life. Roberts and Christian Davis, minister to students at Trinity, said the boy had made an impression on his Sunday School teachers early on. He often arrived early and went to work helping set up the classroom. He was respectful. He smiled a lot.
Thompson was known for having an entrepreneurial spirit that blossomed early. While out walking around the golf course with his dad at Hedingham, where they lived, Thompson began picking up stray balls, which he later scrubbed clean and sold back to golfers. Excited by the success of that venture, he expanded the business, setting up a stand at a nearby tee and offering lemonade for sale as well.
Thompson was learning to cook, Roberts said, watching YouTube videos of British chef Gordon Ramsay to learn about spices and flavors to help him make the best sandwiches.
He enjoyed watching baseball, Roberts said, and made two trips with his father in recent years to see the World Series. He had been deep-sea fishing a time or two and loved that, too. He was thinking about college, planning to go to N.C. State, telling his dad he’d like to live at home the first year or two to save money.
“He was just getting to that age where the world was opening up to him,” Roberts said.
A love for basketball
But both pastors said Thompson was happiest when he was at play. He sampled nearly every sport, Roberts said, testing soccer, swim, T-ball and baseball before finding his place on a basketball court. There, the laid-back, smiling young man they knew in Sunday School became intense, especially on defense, when he would cover an opponent so closely the player could hardly move.
Thompson wasn’t on the team roster at Knightdale High School, where he was a junior. But he was a regular on Trinity’s Upward Sports basketball team, an outreach ministry of the Baptist church that brings teams from different churches together for fellowship, teamwork training and friendly competition.
Thompson was looking forward to playing again this season, Roberts said. Weekly practice starts in November for games that start in January.
Instead, his No. 30 maroon jersey and shorts were draped across his casket for the service Thursday night, and remained there as it was taken out the door to a waiting hearse.
This story was originally published October 21, 2022 at 11:48 AM.
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