Police provide new details about Raleigh shooting, but have yet to determine motive
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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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New details were released Thursday about last week’s mass shooting in Raleigh that left five people dead and two others injured.
But the report does not provide insights into one big question: Why?
The Raleigh Police Department’s report on the investigation revealed information about the shooting in the Hedingham neighborhood and nearby Neuse River Greenway Trail, the nearly three-hour standoff between the suspect, 15-year-old Austin Thompson, and law enforcement, as well as the weapons found on Thompson after he was taken into custody.
After the week-long investigation, however, police have yet to determine what motivated Thompson to open fire on residents of the neighborhood and people running on the trail.
“The collective motive for these attacks is still unknown,” Police Chief Estella Patterson stated in the report. “Based on information currently available, there does not appear to be any connection between the victims that were shot by the suspect prior to his encounter with the police other than they lived in the same neighborhood.”
One of the victims was 16-year-old James Thompson, Austin’s older brother. In the police report, they say James Thompson was found inside a home on the 5300 block of Sahalee Way with an apparent gunshot wound and stab wounds.
Hours later, when police took Austin Thompson into custody at a “barn-like structure” nearly two miles from the neighborhood where the shooting began, they found him with a handgun in a waistband, and a backpack that contained different types of “shotgun/rifle” ammunition.
A sheath for a large knife was found clipped to Thompson’s belt, and a “large hunting knife” was found at the front of the barn. Police reported that a shotgun and shotgun shells were found on the ground next to Thompson.
The report includes a map that shows the direction police believe Thompson traveled from the beginning of the shooting until he was cornered and apprehended in the barn.
Based on their estimate of Thompson’s movement, the report states, police believe Thompson first shot his brother James, before shooting the following victims in this order: Marcille Gardner, Nicole Connors, Officer Gabriel Torres, Mary Marshall, Susan Karnatz and Officer Casey Clark.
Thompson remains hospitalized in critical condition, the report said Thursday.
This story was originally published October 20, 2022 at 4:08 PM.
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