A young man who went on a killing rampage that left five people dead in North Carolina in 2022 pleaded guilty on Wednesday to all the charges against him, a rare conclusion to a mass shooting case that was expected to go to trial and be closely watched in the state.
Lawyers for the man, Austin Thompson, now 18, filed a plea notice on Tuesday and confirmed his guilty plea in a Raleigh courtroom on Wednesday. When the judge asked a series of basic questions as part of the process of approving his guilty plea, such as whether he understood that he was pleading guilty to 10 offenses, Mr. Thompson looked straight ahead and replied, “Yes,” each time.
Mr. Thompson’s charges included five counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of assault of an officer with a gun. Since Mr. Thompson was 15 at the time of the attack, he cannot receive the death penalty. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole. The sentencing hearing will begin next month, and it is expected to last several days.
In a country in which mass shootings seem all too frequent, it is extremely uncommon for people who commit such crimes to plead guilty, given that many of them either die before they’re apprehended or go on trial. In recent months, it appeared that Mr. Thompson was poised to face a jury, with his lawyers writing in court filings that they intended to blame prescribed medication, though they did not specify what medication.
But after lengthy discussions about how the trial would proceed, the lawyers wrote, Mr. Thompson decided that he wanted to spare the community from further trauma.
The killings in a neighborhood northeast of downtown Raleigh, near winding walking trails along the Neuse River, shocked the state and captured national attention. Around 5 p.m. on Oct. 13, 2022, the authorities said that Mr. Thompson grabbed a shotgun, a handgun and a hunting knife and stalked through his community near houses along a golf course in the Hedingham neighborhood.
Clad in camouflage, he fired at people he encountered on his path, beginning in his family’s house, where he fatally stabbed and shot his older brother, James, 16. Then, officials said, he fired at more victims in a car, in a driveway, on a front porch and along a nearby walking path.
The four other victims who were killed were Gabriel Torres, 29, an off-duty Raleigh police officer; Nicole Connors, 52, who lived near the Thompsons’ house; and Mary Marshall, 34 and Susan Karnatz, 49, who were shot on a greenway trail. Mr. Thompson also shot and injured two other people, including a Raleigh police officer who responded to the shooting.
After the burst of violence, Mr. Thompson was in a standoff with police officers, who eventually arrested him. Prosecutors say that Mr. Thompson shot himself in the head before his arrest, resulting in a “serious brain injury,” according to his lawyers.
Mr. Thompson’s lawyers, Kellie Mannette and Deonte’ Thomas, wrote in a court filing that because of the brain injury “Austin cannot explain why he committed this shooting,” even as “he has always accepted that he did this.”
In 2024, Mr. Thompson’s father, Alan, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of storing a firearm in a manner accessible to a minor. He was sentenced to one year of unsupervised probation.
Last year, relatives of the victims and the two survivors filed a lawsuit asserting that Austin Thompson often got into altercations with neighbors, particularly with women, and used racial slurs and violent threats, The News and Observer reported. The relatives and survivors are seeking compensatory damages in excess of $25,000.
Eduardo Medina is a Times reporter covering the South. An Alabama native, he is now based in Durham, N.C.
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