‘Absolutely heartbroken’: Who were the victims in the deadly Raleigh mass shooting?

WSOCTV.com News Staff,Dave Faherty
·5 min read
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The people who were killed Thursday in a shooting spree in an east Raleigh neighborhood were identified Friday morning.

Five people were killed, including an off-duty officer, and two more people were injured in the shooting rampage, Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin confirmed Thursday evening. The suspect is a juvenile, Lt. Jason Borneo of the Raleigh Police Department said.

MORE: ‘We grieve for them’: 5 killed, including off-duty officer, in Raleigh shooting, police say

The victims were identified as:

  • Nicole Connors, 52

  • Susan Karnatz, 49

  • Mary Marshall, 35

  • A 16-year-old who Knightdale High School said was James Thompson, a junior

  • Raleigh Police Officer Gabriel Torres, 29

Officers were first called Thursday to the shooting call at about 5 p.m. near the Neuse River Greenway in the Hedingham neighborhood near Osprey Cove Drive and Bay Harbor Drive. Neighbors said the shooter was young, dressed in camo and had a long rifle. Authorities said that he opened fire along a walking trail.

Raleigh Police Chief Estella Patterson said the shooting suspect, a 15-year-old, was captured Thursday after an hours-long manhunt. He was hospitalized and in critical condition following his arrest. Authorities have not said how he was hurt, and criminal charges have not yet been announced.

Channel 9′s Dave Faherty traveled to east Raleigh to talk to those who knew the victims.

READ MORE: What we know about the Raleigh shooting victims

Nicole Connors

Connors’ husband, Tracy Gardner, told WTVD that he found her body after the shooting.

“Disbelief. I just feel like I’m walking through a daze right now. She was a fun-loving person, bubbly, everybody in the neighborhood knew it, you know. She knew them, they knew her,” Gardner said.

Woodrow Glass, a 74-year-old retiree, was a neighbor of Connors’ in the neighborhood where the shooting happened. He told The Associated Press the shooting highlights 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. “Maybe six of them … boom, boom, boom.”

Sonya Gibbs told Faherty she was walking on the Neuse River Greenway when she heard the gunfire and later learned her friend Connors had been killed.

“She always walked down this street every day. I used to pet her little dog, Sonny,” Gibbs said. “She’s dead.”

A woman told Faherty she was walking on the Neuse River Greenway when she heard the gunfire and later learned her friend Nicole Connors had been killed. “She always walked down this street every day. I used to pet her little dog, Sonny,” Sonya Gibbs said. “She’s dead.”
A woman told Faherty she was walking on the Neuse River Greenway when she heard the gunfire and later learned her friend Nicole Connors had been killed. “She always walked down this street every day. I used to pet her little dog, Sonny,” Sonya Gibbs said. “She’s dead.”

Susan Karnatz

Karnatz’s husband, Tom Karnatz, said she was an avid runner who often ran on the greenway.

“She was a very loving wife and amazing mother to our three sons,” he said through tears to the Associated Press when he answered the door at the family’s home Friday. “We’re absolutely heartbroken and miss her dearly.”

Karnatz’s husband, Tom Karnatz, said she was an avid runner who often ran on the greenway. “She was a very loving wife and amazing mother to our three sons,” he said through tears to the Associated Press when he answered the door at the family’s home Friday. “We’re absolutely heartbroken and miss her dearly.”
Karnatz’s husband, Tom Karnatz, said she was an avid runner who often ran on the greenway. “She was a very loving wife and amazing mother to our three sons,” he said through tears to the Associated Press when he answered the door at the family’s home Friday. “We’re absolutely heartbroken and miss her dearly.”

Mary Marshall

WTVD reports Marshall was engaged to be married. Her fiancé told the Raleigh news station she was shot and killed while walking their dog.

WTVD reports Marshall was engaged to be married. Her fiancé told the Raleigh news station she was shot and killed while walking their dog.
WTVD reports Marshall was engaged to be married. Her fiancé told the Raleigh news station she was shot and killed while walking their dog.

James Thompson

WRAL reports one of the victims was James Roger Thompson, the suspected gunman’s 16-year-old brother. Knightdale High School confirmed Thompson was a junior.

“This is an incredibly difficult time for our school community as well as the broader Raleigh community,” the statement from the school reads. “We have learned that junior James Thompson was killed in yesterday’s tragic shooting on the Neuse River Greenway. It is an unexpected loss and we are saddened by it. Our condolences, thoughts, and prayers go out to James’ family, the other victims, their families and all who have been impacted by yesterday’s events.”

The school said they would offer onsite counseling on campus Friday and next week.

“These are heavy moments that we will work through together as a school family,” the school said.

WRAL reports one of the victims was James Thompson, the suspected gunman’s 16-year-old brother. Knightdale High School confirmed Thompson was a junior.
WRAL reports one of the victims was James Thompson, the suspected gunman’s 16-year-old brother. Knightdale High School confirmed Thompson was a junior.

Gabriel Torres

Gabriel Torres was an off-duty Raleigh Police Department officer, Chief Estella Patterson said. She said he was on his way to work when he was killed.

Elizabeth, who didn’t want to share her last name with Faherty, lived right next door to the Raleigh officer who she says visited her family, often playing video games with her boyfriend.

“We’d walk outside and he’d be getting ready to go to work and we’d sit there and talk for at least an hour before he left,” Elizabeth said. “He’s someone we’d look forward to seeing. All over just a great guy.”

Elizabeth said it was difficult seeing all the rounds fired into the officers car feet from her front door.

“Every time I looked at it I just wanted to start crying,” she said. “That was his car? That was his car. It was sad to see on the news. It was terrible.”

>> Back the Blue NC has created a GoFundMe for the family of Gabriel Torres. To contribute, click here.

‘I just took my grandson and we went in, locked up the house’

Faherty also spoke to neighbors who said hid inside when they heard gunshots.

“At that point in time, I just took my grandson and we went in, locked up the house and, kind of, went to the center of the house,” Shelly Birdsell said.

Some were fighting back tears as they described the moments after that shooting. Neighbor Saunya Jones described the moment she learned about what had happened.

“The guy that lives down there, he was standing in the middle of the yard, saying that there was a shooter,” Jones said. “And then somebody was on the ground, there was a body on the ground, and they was like, performing CPR. And there was a lady that ran down there.”

A large police presence was still in the area by Friday afternoon. Officers were blocking off large sections of the greenway as they conducted their investigation.

In a news conference Friday, the police chief said that her prayers go out to the victims, adding at this point they do not know what led up to all this and why it happened.

This is a developing story, check back for updates.

WTVD and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

(WATCH BELOW: NEWS CONFERENCE: 8:30 a.m. Friday update on Raleigh mass shooting)