Raleigh shooting latest: Suspect will face charges as an adult after killing five

In a joint statement, US president Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden called for an assault weapons ban in the aftermath of the Raleigh mass shooting.

“We’re grieving with the families in Raleigh, NC, whose loved ones were killed or hurt in another mass shooting,” the president and the first lady tweeted.

“For the lives we’ve lost and the lives we can save, we must pass an assault weapons ban,” they said.

North Carolina district attorney Lorrin Freeman said on Friday that she plans to charge the 15-year-old Raleigh mass shooting suspect as an adult.

The suspect reportedly remains hospitalised in critical condition.

Ms Freeman’s office has filed petitions to transfer the case “to Superior Court and to proceed against the individual as an adult.” according to NBC News

Democratic congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, serving as a representative from Washington’s 7th congressional district, called gun violence an “epidemic” in the US following the mass shooting in Raleigh, North Carolina.

“Gun violence is an epidemic in this country and we must do more to enact common sense gun safety legislation,” Ms Jayapal tweeted.

“My heart breaks for those who lost their lives, their loved ones, and yet another community left mourning,” she said.

Democratic Congresswoman Deborah Ross of North Carolina’s 2nd Congressional District issued a statement lamenting US gun violence following the mass shooting in Raleigh. The city is located in the 2nd District.

“How many communities and families must experience this senseless bloodshed before we finally say enough is enough? Gun violence has plagued our schools, houses of worship, and other public spaces for far too long,” she wrote. “I am devastated that Raleigh is next in the long line of American communities forever changed by a mass shooting. No American should be forced to endure this kind of unspeakable anguish and grief.”

Her full comments can be found here.

Joe Biden released a statement today in the wake of the mass shooting that left five people dead in Raleigh, North Carolina.

“Jill and I are grieving with the families in Raleigh, North Carolina, whose loved ones were killed and wounded in yet another mass shooting in America. We are thinking of yet another community shaken and shattered as they mourn the loss of friends and neighbors, including an off-duty police officer,” Mr Biden said. “As we mourn with the people of Raleigh, we are grateful for the law enforcement and other first responders, including federal law enforcement who were on the scene last night and into this morning.”

You can read more of Mr Biden’s statement — and his call for an assault weapons ban — in Eric Garcia’s story below:

Mary Marshall, 35, was less than a month away from her wedding when she was shot and killed by a 15-year-old on Thursday.

Ms Marshall was to be married on 29 October. Her and her fiance had reportedly rented a pair of cabins in the mountains and were preparing to decorate them with pumpkins for a Halloween-themed wedding.

NBC News reports that friends from all over the country — and one from overseas — were planning to attend the wedding.

“She’s got a friend coming from Japan, somebody coming from Florida, from Texas,” her sister, Meghan McCrickard told the outlet. “As excited as she was to be married, I know she was more excited to have all the people she loved the most at the same place at the same time.”

Ms McCrickard said “it was going to be the most beautiful, fall, spooky wedding.”

Raleigh police confirmed that the five people killed during a mass shooting on Thursday evening as Nicole Connors, 52, Susan Karnatz, 49, Mary Marshall, 35, Gabriel Torres, 29, and a 16-year-old minor who authorities did not name.

Marcille Gardner, 59 was wounded and is still recovering in the hospital. Casey Joseph Clark, 33, was also wounded but was released from a hospital after receiving treatment.

ABC11 reports that the suspect, who police describe as a 15-year-old white male, was also injured and transported to the hospital with life threatening injuries. It is unclear if the injuries were self-inflicted.

Read more in Johanna Chisholm’s story at The Independent below:

As the year begins to draw to a close, the death tally for the numbing gun violence epidemic in America continues to grow.

So far, more than 34,000 people have died in shootings in the US in 2022, with more than half of those deaths being recorded as suicide, according to the Gun Violence Archive website.

That same database recorded the mass shooting in Raleigh on Thursday as the deadliest of 17 shootings in North Carolina so far this year.

“We must stop this mindless violence in America. We must address gun violence. We have much to do, and tonight we have much to mourn,” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said at a press conference after the mass slaughter on Thursday.

Reacting to the shooting that left five dead and two injured in Raleigh, governor Roy Cooper called for an end to “mindless violence”.

“Tonight terror has reached our doorstep. The nightmare of every community has come to Raleigh. This is a senseless horrific and infuriating act of violence that has been committed,” Mr Cooper told reporters.

“We must stop this mindless violence in America, we must address gun violence,” the mayor said. “We have much to do, and tonight we have much to mourn.”