‘Racist, aggressive, and violent’: Lawsuit details neighbors’ complaints about North Carolina mass shooter days before killing spree

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — A 162-page lawsuit filed Friday shows residents in Raleigh’s Hedingham neighborhood complained about then-15-year-old Austin Thompson before he allegedly shot and killed five people and injured two others nearly two years ago.

Most notably, the lawsuit claims the Hedingham neighborhood HOA, Austin’s parents, Alan and Elise, and a private police force in the neighborhood that day knew Austin was a threat to the neighborhood and had a history of “antisocial, racist, aggressive and violent comments and behaviors.”

The lawsuit is on behalf of the estates of four people killed on Oct. 13, 2022: Susan Karnatz, Nicole Connors, Mary Marshall, and off-duty police officer Gabriel Torres. The two other plaintiffs were injured that day: Marcille “Lynn” Gardner and Raleigh Police Officer Casey Clark. The fifth person killed that day was James Thompson, Austin’s brother.

The lawsuit is an attempt to get damages from defendants Austin and his parents, as well as Capitol Special Police, the private law enforcement group hired to patrol and serve the neighborhood.

In September, Alan Thompson pleaded guilty to keeping an unlocked gun on his nightstand with ammunition. It’s a gun investigators say Austin used in his spree. Alan’s attorneys say he had no idea his son could be violent.

“Austin had no history of mental illness, there was no prior diagnosis at all,” his attorney, Russell Babb, said then. “There were no bullying incidents neither at school, or inside his own home by his brother James.”

But the lawsuit says Alan and others did know. It includes several instances of neighbors reporting Austin to the HOA, including at least two instances of Austin using racial slurs, and neighbors reporting him as “aggressive, creepy, and off.”

One neighbor said just days before the shooting, they saw Austin carrying a backpack full of supplies and reported his behavior as suspicious. That neighbor then said the path Austin took that day was the same path he took the day of the shootings.

The lawsuit claims Austin also had previous run-ins with one victim, Nicole Connors, who had complained about him. She was shot 34 times, more than the total number of all shots fired at other victims.

The lawsuit focuses heavily on Capitol Special Police and the owner, Roy G. Taylor. They’re a private law enforcement group, advertising themselves as having the same tools and authority as police, including weapons and patrol cars. They were hired to work in the Hedingham neighborhood and had an employee there on the day of the shooting.

The lawsuit claims Capitol Special Police did nothing to intervene after receiving calls about the gunfire and did not send out a warning or alert to neighbors. It says they made no attempt to find or stop Austin during the spree, and could not give Raleigh Police officers any location or suspect information that day.

The lawsuit also says both Alan and Austin talked about their arsenal of weapons and wanting to get even more weapons into their home.

Austin is set to go to trial in September of 2025.

CBS 17 has reached out to Capitol Special Police for comment, but we are waiting to hear back.

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