Raleigh's Hedingham neighborhood, where a memorable mass shooting started in October 2022, was again rattled by gunfire on Wednesday morning.
Police say someone fired shots into three homes on Shadow Glen Drive overnight. One home, 1909 Shadow Glen Drive, took the brunt of the gunfire. Dozens of bullet holes were visible in the back of the home – in the siding, windows, glass doors and foundation. Two others were also hit in the barrage.
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People were home inside each of the homes at the time of the shooting, but no one was injured, according to police. More than 90 evidence markers were visible in the 1900 block of Shadow Glen Drive, and officers remained on the scene for hours, combing through the grass to pick up every shell casing and trying to get pictures of every bullet hole.
“It’s usually a quiet cul-de-sac, so it’s just a blessing that nobody got hurt,” said Tricia Preston.
In a neighborhood Facebook group, residents reported hearing what sounded like fireworks or a car backfiring in the area of Grand Traverse and Shadow Glen drives around 3:45 a.m.
One of them was Sherry Rogers.
“Immediately next door to me, bullets went into a child’s bedroom," she said. "It was so loud my house was shaking. It was just pow, pow, pow, pow, pow.”
She has lived in the neighborhood for 30 years.
“I’m just stunned and I’m angry. I’m really angry," she said. "This is my sanctuary, and I take it very personal that someone would come and threaten our little neighborhood.”
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Police did not share any details about who did the shooting and no arrests have been made. They asked that anyone with information about the incident, including any security camera footage that may have caught the shooters, to call 919-996-1193. Anonymous tips can be sent to www.raleighcrimestoppers.org.
Raleigh's worst mass shooting
The Hedingham neighborhood was the scene of Raleigh's worst mass shooting.
Five people died in a shooting that began inside a home on Sahalee Way and included victims on the Neuse River Greenway just east of the neighborhood.
Police say Austin Thompson, then 15, shot and killed his brother, 16-year-old James Thompson before making his way to the greenway. He allegedly killed four others: off-duty Raleigh police officer Gabriel Torres, 29, who was on his way to work when he was shot; Mary Marshall, 34; Nicole Connors, 52, and Susan Karnatz, 49. Another Raleigh police officer, Casey Clark and Marcille "Lynn" Gardner, a special education teacher, were injured.
Police searched for hours, blocking access to the neighborhood, which is home to about 45,000. They tracked Austin Thompson to an outbuilding on a property on McConnell Oliver Drive, about six miles from his home.
Austin Thompson is scheduled to stand trial in September 2025 on five counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, two counts of assault with deadly weapon with intent to kill and one count of assault with firearm on law enforcement officer. His father, Alan Thompson, was cited on a charge of storing a firearm in a manner accessible to a minor.