Raleigh, North Carolina — A gunman killed five people, including an off-duty police officer, Thursday night after turning a normally quiet residential area of Raleigh, North Carolina, into a sprawling crime scene.
Authorities said late Thursday that the suspect was described only as a “white male juvenile.” was detained. Earlier in the evening, they said the suspect had been “contained.” A police spokesman did not specify the suspect’s age or provide any further information about him.
“Tonight, terrorism has reached our doorstep,” Gov. Roy Cooper said at a pre-11 p.m. press conference at the Raleigh Municipal Building. “Every community’s nightmare has come to Raleigh. This is a senseless, terrifying and infuriating act of violence.”
Two other people were injured, one of whom was released from hospital late Thursday and the other in critical condition, officials said. Authorities have not identified the victim.
Mayor Mary Ann Baldwin looked visibly emotional when tallying casualties at an earlier press conference. . “We need to support those in our community who have suffered the terrible loss of losing loved ones.”
The attack elicited a strong response from multiple law enforcement agencies, with emergency vehicles flooding the Hedingham neighborhood on the city’s East Side late Thursday afternoon. Residents said the sirens went off around 4 p.m., and in less than an hour, dozens of police cars rushed to the scene and filled the area around the neat tree-lined avenue.
Shortly before 6 p.m., Raleigh Police issued a warning on Twitter, saying, “Residents in the area are advised to stay at home.”
The area is near the Newes River Greenway, a popular cycling trail for Raleigh residents.
The shootings have forced an area lined with single-family homes and golf courses into a virtual lockdown.
Eagle Trace Drive, about 1.5 miles from the scene, was a normally quiet road with vegetated medians and traffic had stopped. As the car pulled forward, sirens blared in the distance and police cars with flashing lights snorted.
“I’m not going home,” nurse Cheryl St. James said in the car. “I want to go home. I can’t believe this is happening in my neighborhood. It’s scary.”
Project manager Ethan Garner, who has lived in the area for three years, said he left home to get something to eat when he saw the police arriving around 5:30 p.m. Watch “House of the Dragon”. He said he was walking the Greenway, but I might think twice now.
“I keep the door unlocked,” he said. “Yeah, I have a camera, but I don’t worry about that sort of thing. Nothing happened.”
Police said the siege ended at 9:37 pm and the suspect was detained.
At a later press conference, Ms. Baldwin referred to mass shootings across the country when speaking about Raleigh’s attack.
“We have to end this mindless gun violence in this country,” she said, adding, “There are too many victims.” We need to wake up, we don’t want other mayors standing on the podium here feeling the pain of the loss of people in their community.”
The Raleigh shootings, including the May shooting at a Buffalo supermarket that killed 10 people and the Uvalde, Texas elementary school shooting in May, killed 19 children and two teachers. It was a reminder of rampant gun violence across the country, including the death of , and another shooting at a Fourth of July celebration in Highland Park, Illinois, killed seven people.
Two police officers were killed and a third was injured in Connecticut just the day beforeAuthorities say they staged an ambush after responding to a potentially hoaxed 911 call.
Thursday’s shooting was the deadliest shooting in North Carolina in 2022. According to the Gun Violence ArchiveIn 2009, a gunman opened fire at a nursing home in Carthage, North Carolina, killing seven elderly patients and a nurse and injuring several others, including a police officer.
Neighbors struggled to make sense of the Raleigh shooting on Thursday.
Ann Berry, 52, has lived in the Aviton Place neighborhood of Raleigh for over a decade. For 20 years, helicopters have been hovering over her home intermittently for more than three hours, and the sound, she said, “was heartbreaking.”
Berry said a neighbor told her that when he went walking his dog, the police stopped and asked if he had seen anyone in camouflage and told her to go back inside.
Another neighbor, Brad Redd, who has lived in the area for four years, describes Hedingham as a multicultural and economically diverse place with lakes and golf courses. He said he was “surprised” by the shooting.
“This is the last thing I expect here,” he said, adding, “It’s going to rock this community.”
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