5 dead in Raleigh, North Carolina, shooting, police say
By Amir Vera, Jamiel Lynch, Sara Smart and Andy Rose, CNN
Five people — including an off-duty police officer — are dead after a shooting Thursday in eastern Raleigh, North Carolina, police said.
Two people were taken to the hospital, one of whom was a Raleigh K9 officer with non-life threatening injuries and was later released, authorities said. The other victim is in critical condition, Raleigh police spokesperson Lt. Jason Borneo said during a news conference Thursday night.
“Tonight, terror has reached our doorstep. The nightmare of every community has come to Raleigh,” Gov. Roy Cooper said at the news conference. “This is a senseless, horrific and infuriating act of violence that has been committed.”
The suspect was taken into custody shortly after 9:30 p.m, Borneo said. The suspect is a White male juvenile, police said, and has not identified further.
The shooting unfolded around 5 p.m. in the neighborhood of Hedingham near the Neuse River Greenway, Borneo said. What followed was an hours-long ordeal as authorities worked to apprehend the suspect.
Helicopter footage from CNN affiliate WRAL-TV showed more than a dozen emergency vehicles lined up on a road through a wooded area.
A woman who was at the Hedingham Golf Club driving range said an “unending stream of police” drove by the area.
“A golf pro came out to tell us to shelter inside or leave ASAP,” she told CNN. “They were very calm, but I could tell something was wrong, so we left right away.”
Police tweeted shortly before 6 p.m. that officers were “on the scene of an active shooting in the area of the Neuse River Greenway near Osprey Cove Drive and Bay Harbor Drive.”
At around 8:30 p.m., police advised residents to remain in their homes “until further notice.”
“This is a sad and tragic day for the city of Raleigh,” said Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin. “All of us in Raleigh right now need to come together. We need to support those in our community who have suffered a terrible loss. A loss of a loved one. We need to support the family of the police officer who was killed and also the police officer who was shot.”
Numerous local and state law enforcement agencies are assisting Raleigh police, including the Charlotte Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
A visibly emotional Baldwin said she wants no other mayor to ever have to be in a similar situation.
“We have to end this mindless gun violence that is happening in our country,” she said.
There have been at least 531 mass shootings — including Thursday’s in Raleigh — in the US so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The organization, like CNN, defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are shot, excluding the shooter.
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CNN’s Dianne Gallagher and Chuck Johnston contributed to this report.
