A 15-year-old boy killed five people and injured two more in a shooting rampage in Raleigh, police said, horrifying a community that is now mourning victims whose lives were cut short as they were going about their daily routines, reports UNB.
Raleigh Police Chief Estella Patterson said the teen was captured hours after the victims were gunned down Thursday evening. He was hospitalized and in critical condition following his arrest, but authorities has not said how he was injured. Patterson said Friday that police haven’t determined a motive for the attack.
The victims were different races and ranged in age from 16 to their late 50s, Patterson said. Family members and friends said some of the victims were gunned down while doing normal, everyday activities an off-duty police officer was killed while on his way to work, one of the women who died was on her porch talking to a neighbor, another woman who died was out walking her dog and another was out exercising.
Gov. Roy Cooper called the shooting an “infuriating and tragic act of gun violence.” He added: “No neighborhood, no parent, no child, no grandparent, no one should feel this fear in their communities no one.”
The gunfire broke out around 5 p.m. Thursday in a residential area northeast of downtown, Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said. Police said from there, the teenager fled to a nearby walking trail and continued shooting.
The teen was not immediately identified by police, eluded officers for hours setting off a manhunt across a crime scene that stretched for 2 miles (3 kilometers) before he was cornered in a home and arrested, Patterson said.
Bd-pratidin English/Ishrar Tabassum
