Police: Teen kills 5, hurts 2 in Raleigh
Officials mum on gun type, how the suspect was injured
RALEIGH, N.C. – A 15-year-old boy fatally shot two people in the streets of a neighborhood in North Carolina’s capital city, then fled toward a walking trail, where he opened fire, killing three more people and wounding two others, police said Friday.
Raleigh Police Chief Estella Patterson said the suspect was hospitalized in critical condition after the shootings Thursday afternoon.
The victims were racially diverse and ranged in age from 16 to their late 50s, Patterson said at a news conference. Among the dead was an off-duty Raleigh police officer, Gabriel Torres, 29, who was on his way to work when the shooting began. Police identified the other victims as Nicole Conners, 52; Mary Marshall, 34; Susan Karnatz, 49; and James Roger Thompson, 16.
Marcille Lynn Gardner, 59, was wounded and remained hospitalized in critical condition Friday. A second police officer, Casey Joseph Clark, 33, was wounded and released from the hospital.
The suspect, who was not immediately identified by police, eluded officers for hours before he was cornered in a home and arrested, police said. Officials have not said how the suspect was injured. The shootings set off a massive police response and manhunt, Patterson said. She said authorities have not yet determined any motive.
Gov. Roy Cooper called the shooting an “infuriating and tragic act of gun violence.”
“Today we’re sad, we’re angry, and we want to know the answers to all the questions,” Cooper said.
Woodrow Glass, a 74-year-old retiree, was a neighbor of Conners in the neighborhood where the shooting happened.
“Oh, she’s a great lady,” Glass said. “I mean, she was friendly with everybody in the neighborhood.”
Glass said the shooting illustrates the need for policies to keep guns out of the hands of juveniles. While the type of weapon used wasn’t clear, Glass noted that the gun had enough power to cause multiple deaths.
“Why would a kid have a gun like that? That he could cause that many deaths, you know?” Glass said.