Five People, Including an Officer, were Murdered in a Shooting in Raleigh, North Carolina, and 15-Year-Old Suspect is in Custody

Five people, including an off-duty police officer, were murdered and two others were injured Thursday evening in a Raleigh, North Carolina residential area.

According to the city’s police chief, a 15-year-old white male suspect was arrested and was in critical condition as of Friday morning.

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Police named the dead victims as Nicole Connors, 52, Susan Karnatz, 49, Mary Marshall, 34, Officer Gabriel Torres, 29, and James Roger Thompson, 16. This month, Marshall would have been 35 years old.

Chief Estella Patterson’s Report

Chief Estella Patterson said during a news briefing on Friday that Torres was slain while on his way to work.

Patterson said, “This is an incredibly, tremendously traumatic event for our police, myself, and the whole community.”

Patterson said that the alleged shooter was being charged and that the investigation into what happened was still going on.

A Raleigh police K-9 officer was among the two people who were injured, according to the city’s mayor, Mary-Ann Baldwin.

Lieutenant Jason Borneo’s Report

Lieutenant Jason Borneo of the Raleigh Police Department said late Thursday evening that the injured officer had been treated and discharged from the hospital.

The second injured victim, a 59-year-old woman, was hospitalised in critical condition.

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The incident was reported just after 5 p.m. in the Hedingham neighbourhood of east Raleigh, near the Neuse River Greenway.

Borneo said that the man was apprehended at 9:37 p.m. and that “there is no active, continuing danger.”

The suspect had been “contained at a house in the neighbourhood” earlier in the evening by both local and federal law enforcement.

Purpose of the Shootings Not Specified

Raleigh police stated that “several law enforcement agencies” had responded to an “active shooting” as the scenario unfolded.

Just after 7:30 p.m., the Bureau of Alcohol tweeted that its agents were responding to an “active shooter situation.”

The police warned residents to “stay in their houses.” They recommended cars to avoid the area.

The nearby Hedingham Golf Facility informed that the club was shuttered. All players were removed from the course.

“Tonight, terror has reached our doorstep,” declared North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper at a late-evening press conference. “The dread of every community has arrived in Raleigh. This is a violent act that is stupid, horrifying, and aggravating.”