North Carolina teen who killed brother and 4 neighbors in 2022 attack to be sentenced

Austin Thompson, the North Carolina teenager who killed his brother and four neighbors in a violent 2022 rampage, will be sentenced on Tuesday.

Thompson, now 18, pleaded guilty on Jan. 21 to five counts of first-degree murder, attempted murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and assault on a law enforcement officer.

A court filing states that Thompson chose to plead guilty “to save the community and the victims from as much additional infliction of trauma as possible” and spare them a trial.

Thompson, then 15, armed himself with a .22 caliber rifle from his Raleigh home and shot his 16-year-old brother in the head, the court filing states. The two were home alone after returning from school and had been playing video games before the Oct. 13, 2022, attack.

The brother survived the shot, but died after Thompson took a knife and stabbed him 57 times, mostly in the neck area. Prosecutors said that for the next 30 minutes, Thompson went around the house collecting additional firearms and “hundreds of rounds of ammunition of various calibers.”

He then changed from his school clothes into “full camouflage gear and packed a large backpack” with water, prepackaged food, $700 in cash, a change of clothes, ammunition, fire starters, knives, fishing hooks, toilet paper, a first aid kit, and hunting face paint, according to the filing.

Prosecutors said Thompson armed himself with a shotgun and a handgun and left the home, where he encountered victims Nichole Connors and Lynn Garner, neighbors who were preparing to walk their dogs. The filing states that Thompson is seen on video crouching as he approached the women and opened fire. Connors and her dog were killed.

Garner survived the attack and was able to describe the shooter as a young man in camouflage. She said as Thompson stood over her, she cried out and asked why he was doing that to them, the filing says.

Video footage then captured Thompson approaching a vehicle in a driveway, where he fatally shot Gabriel Torres, a Raleigh police officer who was headed to work. Another victim was a woman named Mary Marshall, who prosecutors said was trying to grab her dog after the dog had gotten loose.

Not far from where Marshall was killed was the body of Susan Karnatz, who had been out on her daily jog.

Thompson fled to a wooded area after the killings. Law enforcement tracked him down after he was spotted on a roadway. As officers and police dogs approached, Thompson shot himself in the head but survived.

Authorities said that interviews with his parents and teachers did not reveal a clear motive for the rampage, but a search of his computer and phone showed that he had been looking up mass shootings.