N.C. Mass Shooting: Boy, 15, In Custody After 5 Killed In Raleigh

RALEIGH, NC — A 15-year-old boy fatally shot five people, including an off-duty police officer, and wounded two others Thursday in a shooting North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper called an "infuriating and tragic act of gun violence," according to authorities.

The boy, who has not been identified by police, eluded officers for hours before he was cornered in a home and arrested. He remains in critical condition, Raleigh Police Chief Estella Patterson said at a Friday news conference.

"We mourn and share not only the loss of our officer but all the victims of this senseless gun crime," Patterson said.

Just after 5 p.m. Thursday, authorities said the suspect fatally shot two people in a residential area northeast of downtown Raleigh before fleeing to the Neuse River Greenway, a nearby walking trail in the city's Hedingham neighborhood, where he shot several others. The shooting prompted police to issue a shelter-in-place notice for nearby residents until the suspect was arrested shortly after 9:30 p.m.

• RELATED: Raleigh Mass Shooting: 5 Dead; Juvenile In Custody, Police Say

Those killed range in age from 16 to their late 50s, Patterson said Friday. Off-duty Raleigh police officer Gabriel Torres was among the dead, Patterson confirmed. Torres was on his way to work when the shooting began.

Others killed, according to a list compiled by the News & Observer, include:

1. Nicole Conners, 52
2. Mary Marshall, 34
3. Susan Karnatz, 49
4. James Roger Thompson, 16

Senior Officer Casey Joseph Clark, 33, was shot and sustained non-critical injuries. He was treated and released from the hospital, Patterson said. A 59-year-old woman was also injured and is still in critical condition.

A Raleigh K-9 officer was also treated for injuries that were non-life-threatening, Patterson said.

"There are several families in our community waking up this morning without their loved ones. We grieve for them today," Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said during Friday's news conference. "This has doubled our determination now to end senseless gun violence that has ripped on our country and now in our city. We have to do something."

Thursday’s violence was the 25th mass killing in 2022 in which the victims were fatally shot, according to a database kept by The Associated Press, USA TODAY, and Northeastern University. A mass killing is defined as when four or more people are killed excluding the perpetrator.

The Raleigh shooting was the latest in a violent week across the country. Five people were killed Sunday in a shooting at a home in Inman, South Carolina. On Wednesday night two police officers were fatally shotin Connecticut after apparently being drawn into an ambush by an emergency call about possible domestic violence.

President Joe Biden released a statement Friday addressing the shooting, in which he said, "Enough."

"We’ve grieved and prayed with too many families who have had to bear the terrible burden of these mass shootings," Biden said in the statement. "Too many families have had spouses, parents, and children taken from them forever."

Gov. Cooper on Friday said he woke up with a "deep sadness" for the people of Raleigh and for the entire state of North Carolina.

"We’re standing with you in this moment of unspeakable agony," Cooper said. "As policymakers, we cannot and we will not turn away from what happened here."

Under North Carolina law, crimes committed by a 15-year-old are usually adjudicated in juvenile court. But a juvenile court judge must transfer the case to Superior Court for the youth to be tried as an adult if the 15-year-old is accused of first-degree murder and determines there is probable cause that the suspect committed the crime.

Authorities have not commented on what charges the suspect could face.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.