Nearly two years after five people were killed and two seriously injured in a shooting in a Raleigh neighborhood, the community of Hedingham is faced with a difficult question: Could the disaster have been prevented?
In a lawsuit filed last week in Wake County Superior Court, family members of the victims and the two survivors argue that the Hedingham Community Association, the property management company, the shooter’s parents and a private security firm hired to patrol the neighborhood to patrol could have prevented the murder. October 13, 2022, shootings.
Austin Thompson, 17, will be tried in September on charges of murdering his younger brother James and four neighbors when he was 15.
His father, Alan Thompson, 61, pleaded guilty last month to improperly storing a gun that police said matched the weapon used in the shooting, The News & Observer previously reported.
Now Alan Thompson and his wife Elise are also accused of negligence in the civil suit filed on October 4.
Here’s what we know about the lawsuit.
‘Well-known outcast and problem’
The complaint alleges that Austin Thompson “was a known outcast and a problem in the neighborhood,” getting into fights with neighbors in the months before the shooting. The lawsuit cites statements from two residents who accused Austin of using racial slurs and violent threats.
“Anytime [he] would look for problems and engage with people nearby, [he] seemed to mainly target women,” one resident said in the complaint.
Five of the seven people Thompson is accused of shooting were women. One of the dead, Nicole Connors, “had run-ins with the Thompsons” before the shooting, the complaint alleges.
“Austin fired 34 shots at Nicole – more than the total number of shots he fired at the other victims,” the complaint states.
According to the lawsuit, Connors had at least 34 individual entry wounds and at least 25 exit wounds, more than all the wounds of the other victims combined.
The complaint also alleges that Alan and Elise Thompson were aware of their son’s alleged behavior, and that Alan allegedly participated in some of the violent comments.
“[A]An African-American woman who lived near the Thompsons’ home [r]“I called out Austin and Alan to make racist comments against racial minority neighbors, including herself and her young granddaughter with special needs,” the lawsuit said. “Other residents complained that Austin was exhibiting aggressive behavior toward women in the neighborhood…”
That behavior allegedly included a discussion about the Thompsons’ access to weapons, the complaint said.
“Residents recall comments made by Austin and Alan Thompson regarding their arsenal of weapons and their desire to acquire more weapons and stockpile ammunition,” the complaint said.
Because the Thompsons were aware of these allegations, they should have secured their guns and ammunition, but they failed to do so, the complaint said. When police searched the home, they found at least 11 unsecured firearms and 160 unsecured boxes of ammunition, including a loaded .22 caliber rifle, according to the lawsuit.
‘Hoodingham’
Overall, the lawsuit argues that those responsible for the Hedingham neighborhood — the community association and the property management company — should have done more to keep residents safe.
“For years, Hedingham was plagued by an alarming amount of criminal activity, earning it the nickname ‘Hoodingham’ from its residents,” the complaint said. “Despite complaints from residents about increasing criminal activity and lack of security, crime in Hedingham continued to increase until culminating in a tragic mass shooting.”
The lawsuit includes a list of 491 “acts of criminal violence” in Hedingham or the immediate area from January 2022 to October 2022. From June 2014 to October 13, 2022, there were 3,832 reported crimes within a 2 mile radius of the Thompson branch. home, where the shooting began, the lawsuit said.
In response to complaints from residents, the community association hired Capitol Special Police, a Durham-based private security firm, “to provide armed security services and armed roving patrols,” according to the complaint.
But, the lawsuit alleges, the company was grossly incompetent and failed to properly patrol the neighborhood or address potentially dangerous behavior, including on the day of the shooting.
“As each round of gunshots rang out, signaling a new crime scene, Capitol Special Police or [Chief of Police Roy] Taylor should have been aware of the gunfire and responded,” the complaint said. “Each crime scene was several minutes apart from the next shots.”
When officers from the Raleigh Police Department arrived, none of the security officers could say where the shooting occurred, describe Austin Thompson or provide an address for police to respond to, the complaint alleges.
“It was residents of the affected neighborhood who accompanied the Raleigh Police Department and tended to their injured neighbors,” the lawsuit said.
The victims’ family members and the two survivors are seeking compensatory damages in excess of $25,000 and punitive damages with pre- and post-judgment interest from each defendant, according to the complaint.
