Attorneys for accused Hedingham shooter want to delay trial in Raleigh mass killings
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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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Attorneys for the Raleigh teen accused of killing five people and seriously injuring two others in a 2022 mass shooting want to delay his trial, according to a motion filed Wednesday.
Austin Thompson, 17, is charged with five counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflicting serious injury and one count of assault with a firearm on a law enforcement officer.
Thompson was 15 years old when police say he opened fire in the Hedingham neighborhood near the Neuse River Greenway Trail after killing his older brother in their Sahalee Way home.
Thompson reportedly shot himself in the head during a standoff with police and was hospitalized at WakeMed for several days. He is living in a rehabilitative facility.
Now, the consequences of that head injury could delay Thompson’s trial, currently set to begin Sept. 22.
“While [Thompson] has since been declared competent to stand trial, he is still a brain-injured adolescent,” Thompson’s attorneys wrote in their motion to continue the trial. “Further, he is being held an hour from Raleigh.”
Those factors complicate his defense attorneys’ work on the case, the motion argues.
“As a result of Austin’s severe brain injury, compounded by his adolescence and the passage of three years, Austin is functionally a different person than he was at the time of the event,” the motion states. “Therefore, current evaluations do not fully identify Austin’s personality, state of mind, capacity to plan, or mental health at the time of this incident.”
Because of that, Thompson’s defense team needs more time to interview those who knew him and to obtain additional records that could provide more context surrounding the shootings, according to the motion.
Furthermore, the discovery phase of the trial has already turned up more than 8 terabytes of evidence, including downloads from electronic devices belonging to Thompson and his family members, the motion states.
The motion also included affidavits from a mitigation specialist and forensic psychiatrist working on Thompson’s case, both of whom requested the trial be delayed until 2026.
“What has become clear over time is that the interviews are the necessary component in this investigation,” wrote mitigation specialist Zachary Rowles. “There are still dozens of people to be interviewed to complete this investigation.”
Rowles said he would not be able to complete those interviews until at least April because he will be working on a lengthy capital trial set to start next month.
Dr. George Corvin, the forensic psychiatrist hired by Thompson’s defense team, wrote that he also believes interviews will be necessary to develop an accurate analysis of Thompson’s state of mind. Corvin said he is currently involved in 126 active cases in North Carolina and seven other states and is scheduled to testify in at least eight trials or hearings through September, according to his affidavit.
A hearing on the motion to continue had yet to be scheduled as of Wednesday morning. Thompson is next scheduled to appear in court Friday afternoon, court records show.
This story was originally published January 8, 2025 at 12:15 PM.
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