New filing in Hedingham shooting civil suit alleges ‘misleading’ information

Amid a flurry of motions filed over the past week, a defendant in the Hedingham shooting civil lawsuit has accused the plaintiffs of misleading the public to garner media attention, according to a motion filed Wednesday.

The two survivors and the loved ones of four of the five victims of the Oct. 13, 2022, mass shooting sued multiple parties involved in the incident or tied to the neighborhood, The News & Observer previously reported. Those parties include Capitol Special Police, the private security company employed by the neighborhood, and Nicole Locke, the security guard on-duty the evening of the shooting.

Five people were killed, including the shooter’s older brother, when then-15-year-old Austin Thompson opened fire in east Raleigh’s Hedingham neighborhood that day. Thompson pleaded guilty to all of the charges against him and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The plaintiffs and several defendant parties are seeking immediate judgment in the case, which was set to go to trial this July but will likely be delayed until January after a consent motion from all parties, The N&O previously reported.

Now, Capitol Special Police is asking for sanctions against the plaintiffs, according to a motion filed by attorney Camila DeBoard on Wednesday.

“[T]he conduct of Plaintiffs’ counsel and the volume of requests equate to harassment against a party-defendant,” DeBoard wrote. “Further, the sole basis of their motion to compel was theater in an attempt to inflate news coverage as to this matter and mislead the general public.”

DeBoard’s motion references a request filed April 30 by the plaintiffs for sanctions against Capitol Special Police. In that request, the plaintiffs claimed Capitol Special Police was withholding or had deleted GPS evidence in the case and wasn’t providing proper discovery, a pretrial exchange of evidence and other information The N&O reported.

DeBoard wrote in her motion that several key facts in the plaintiffs’ filing were incorrect, including:

• The allegation that Locke was late for her shift the day of the shooting. DeBoard provided text messages showing Locke notified a supervisor about 1 p.m. that she wouldn’t arrive until 5 p.m. due to a family emergency, and the supervisor changed her shift to start at 5 p.m.
• The claim that Capitol Special Police didn’t provide requested communications. Capitol Special Police gave the plaintiffs access to its system for documenting nightly shifts, DeBoard wrote.
• Misrepresenting Locke’s delay in calling 911. Locke was not able to get on the phone with an operator until 5:18 p.m. because of the large number of incoming calls to 911, DeBoard said in the motion.

“Since July 30, 2025, there has not been a single communication from Plaintiffs’ counsel to counsel for [Capito Special Police] regarding ongoing deficiencies in their discovery response or concerns regarding the same,” DeBoard wrote in her motion.

A hearing had not been set for the multiple pending motions in the case as of Thursday afternoon, though a court filing noted such a hearing could take place May 18 or May 22.

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This story was originally published May 7, 2026 at 2:57 PM.

Lexi Solomon

The News & Observer

Lexi Solomon joined The News & Observer in August 2024 as the emerging news reporter. She previously worked in Fayetteville at The Fayetteville Observer and CityView, reporting on crime, education and local government. She is a 2022 graduate of Virginia Tech with degrees in Russian and National Security & Foreign Affairs.