Austin Thompson Bio - Austin Thompson Wiki
Austin Thompson is the person hospitalized, suspected of killing five and injuring two others in a shooting spree in an east Raleigh neighborhood on Thursday; Sources tell WRAL News.
One of the victims was his 16-year-old brother, James Roger Thompson, a junior at Knightdale High School.
Age
He is 15 years old.
Raleigh Shooting
The shooting occurred in the Hedingham neighborhood in the northeast of Raleigh, where homes and golf courses sit near the Neuse River Greenway, a bike and walking trail that winds through wetlands and pine groves.
When the police responded late Thursday afternoon, they arrived to discover the bodies of two victims on a street lined with tidy duplex homes, and then found others scattered in the neighborhood and on the nearby trail, the authorities said.
The attacks prompted the authorities to implore residents to stay in their homes or away from the neighborhood as officers began a manhunt. Eventually, the police said that the suspect had been contained, and by 9:37 p.m., he was taken into custody.
“It was a long standoff, a long situation,” Chief Patterson said.
The burst of violence has plunged Raleigh into a familiar agony, as the latest American community forced to grapple with the aftermath of a mass shooting.
Suspect Arrested
In an 8:30 a.m. press conference on Friday, Chief of Police Estella Patterson said the 15-year-old male shooter was in critical condition at WakeMed.
Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said she expected the suspect to be charged as an adult despite his age.
"If the subject does survive, we will be proceeding with the intent of sending it to superior court," she said. "In consideration of the mass number of lives lost, it's appropriate that this case be handled in superior court and this individual prosecuted as an adult."
Wake County Public Schools sent a statement to families following the shooting, saying James Thompson was a junior at Knightdale High School. The report did not mention Austin Thompson.