Teen pleads guilty to North Carolina mass shooting that killed 5 [View all]
Source: AP
By GARY D. ROBERTSON
Updated 8:25 PM CST, January 21, 2026
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — An 18-year-old pleaded guilty Wednesday to murder and other charges for a mass shooting in North Carolina, acknowledging that he carried out a 2022 killing rampage that left five people dead, including his older brother and a police officer.
Austin David Thompson, who was 15 at the time of the attack that authorities say began in his Raleigh neighborhood, had been poised to go on trial in state court in less than two weeks.
Instead, Thompson’s attorneys, who for months had filed pretrial motions designed to limit certain testimony and evidence, announced Tuesday that he planned to plead guilty to all charges against him. His attorneys wrote that avoiding a trial would “save the community and the victims from as much additional infliction of trauma as possible.”
Thompson, wearing a quarter-zip sweater and slacks, offered few words while Wake County Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway questioned him and accepted his pleas. He pleaded guilty to five counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of assault of an officer with a gun.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/north-carolina-mass-shooting-plea-e33aa4a5763c033e10139fab11d150fe
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