Bringing The World Home To You

© 2024 WUNC North Carolina Public Radio
120 Friday Center Dr
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
919.445.9150 | 800.962.9862
91.5 Chapel Hill 88.9 Manteo 90.9 Rocky Mount 91.1 Welcome 91.9 Fayetteville 90.5 Buxton 94.1 Lumberton 99.9 Southern Pines 89.9 Chadbourn
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

6:43 AM Newscast 10-14-2022: Short Feature

Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin talks with reporters on Friday, October 14, 2022 after a mass shooting in the city's northeast neighborhood.
Matt Ramey
/
For WUNC
Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin talks with reporters on Friday, October 14, 2022 after a mass shooting in the city's northeast neighborhood.

This is a newscast award entry that includes the voices of WUNC's Morning Edition Host Eric Hodge and WUNC Features News Editor Dave Dewitt.

This is a short feature that ran the morning after the mass shooting on Oct. 13, 2022 in the Hedingham neighborhood of Raleigh, North Carolina.

Five people are dead after a mass shooting in northeast Raleigh. An individual described by police only as a white male juvenile reportedly shot and killed several people on or near the Neuse River Greenway Trail before police contained him in a building several miles away and arrested him around 9 p.m. Thursday.

Details are still emerging, and the investigation is ongoing and will be for some time. In the first of a pair of late-night press conferences, a visibly shaken Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin did what she could to put the pieces together.

“At this time what we can report is that RPD has confirmed five fatalities," she said. “One of them was an off-duty Raleigh police officer.”

The shooting began in the Hedingham neighborhood around 5 p.m. Eyewitnesses told other media they say a young white man in camouflage, with black boots and a single long gun.

After the shootings, a massive manhunt followed, as police urged residents in usually quiet neighborhoods to stay indoors. Interstate 5-40 was shut down, and police and emergency vehicles came and went in force at nearby WakeMed Raleigh hospital.

Misinformation spread on social media, sometimes from law enforcement, and was repeated by several media outlets, until the suspected shooter – described only as a white male juvenile - was taken into custody after 9 p.m.

"Tonight, terror has reached our doorstep," said Gov. Roy Cooper, speaking at a press conference a couple hours later. "The nightmare of every community has come to Raleigh."

There also wasn't any hint of a reason for this tragedy.

"Again, this is still an active investigation," said Lt. Jason Borneo, a Raleigh Police spokesperson. "The reasoning behind their actions is going to come to bear in the coming days."

After expressing support and gratitude for the police, Mayor Baldwin uttered a familiar refrain. It's one that emerges during and after these near-constant mass shooting events.

"And we must do more," she said. "We must stop this mindless violence in America. We must address gun violence."

If recent history is a guide, that argument will play out in the coming days, with no serious policy changes emerging, even as the inevitable details emerge about this shooter, and how and why he murdered five people so easily, quickly, and ruthlessly.