A mass shooting occurred in Raleigh, NC. As a result of the accident, five people were killed and two were injured on October 13, 2022. Gabriel Torres, 29 years old, was one of the victims. He was an off-duty Raleigh police officer. The incident occurred while Torres was on the way to work.
Austin Thompson, 15, has been identified as the shooter by Raleigh PD. His older brother, who died due to his injuries, was shot and stabbed by Thompson before he went on this shooting spree. Investigators say Thompson then shot at random people in his neighborhood without explanation. There have been reports that a long gun was used by the suspect, but investigators have not confirmed this. The suspect eventually barricaded himself inside a shed after the shooting, where a K-9 officer tracked him down with the RPD. At Wake Medical Center, the shooter is in critical condition with life-threatening injuries. There is no information about the shooter's motive. Further information will be released once it is available, according to investigators.
According to The Associated Press, this event was the 25th mass killing in 2022 in which victims were fatally shot. The term mass shooting refers to incidents involving the death of 4 or more people (not including the suspect). In North Carolina, this marks the 123rd mass shooting since 2013. In total, that violence has resulted in 128 deaths and 463 injuries.
My note to the audience: As the CEO of Lockdown International LLC and an individual who has devoted many years to preventing active shooters, I have repeatedly been asked "What could motivate a 15-year-old child to commit such a crime?" Despite my expertise in this field, I have trouble finding the answer. My answer to that question is simply this, "It's not just one factor; it's a conglomeration of numerous factors mixed that causes these perpetrators to act out such horrific crimes.
While "motive" has a legitimate role to play, we believe that the ritualized hunt for it is often a waste of resources and fruitless speculation. In the media's pursuit of this quest, data is almost never provided that would allow a proper conclusion to be reached. Moreover, these exercises rarely yield any practical or actionable information that would help reduce the likelihood of future mass shootings.
How can you be prepared for a situation like this?
Lockdown International's Active Survival: ABC'S Active Threat Response Plan training is an international award-winning course designed to provide and empower individuals with option-based survival skills to stay alive until law enforcement arrives, and ultimately survive any violent incident. Learn more here: https://www.lockdowninternational.com/activesurvival