Raleigh Mass Shooter Austin Thompson is a 15-Year-Old White Kid But Will Be Charged as an Adult, Police Say

By Edward Era Barbacena

A mass shooting in Raleigh, North Carolina on Thursday afternoon left five people dead and two others injured. The shooting happened in the Hedingham neighborhood, a typically quiet suburban neighborhood, The Washington Post reported. The victims ranged in age between 16 and 52 years old.

People in a suburban neighborhood in Raleigh were performing everyday tasks and chores: walking their dog, going out for a run, or just stepping out of their house to go to work, when a 15-year-old boy dressed in camouflage and carrying a shotgun went on a killing spree and murdered five people.

Little has been revealed about the 15-year-old gunman Austin Thompson, except that he is a young white juvenile, he was dressed in camouflage during the attack, carried a camouflage backpack and was arrested after a manhunt which spanned four hours. The 15-year-old was apprehended following a standoff with police leaving him in critical condition. Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said her office is monitoring the gunman’s medical condition.

Prosecutors expressed that Thompson would be charged as an adult.

Further details about the shooting have yet to be released. But Hedingham has been reported to be a typically calm and friendly suburban area which features the Neuse River Greenway Trail.

But on Saturday, the neighborhood came together to mourn those who were murdered in their quiet neighborhood—one victim having actually been gunned down on their porch—including Mary Marshall, 35, James Roger Thompson, 16, Nicole Connors, 52, Susan Karnatz, 49, and Officer Gabriel Torres, 29, who was off-duty at the time.

North Carolina does not have a minimum age for possession of rifles or shotguns, according to data from the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. In the United States between 1966 and 1975—a nine year timespan—there were 12 mass shootings. Between 2011 and 2021 there were 160 mass shootings. More than 95% of those mass shooting perpetrators were male, 74% used a gun, and 54% were white, according to the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government of SUNY.

“Enough,” said President Joe Biden in a statement on Friday. “We’ve grieved and prayed with too many families who have had to bear the terrible burden of these mass shootings. We must pass an assault weapons ban. The American people support this commonsense action to get weapons of war off our streets.”