The North Carolina teenager who killed his brother and gunned down four neighbors in 2022 pleaded guilty to the slayings Wednesday, just weeks ahead of his scheduled trial.
Austin Thompson, now 18, wore a burgundy quarter-zip sweater with a collared shirt as he pleaded guilty to five counts of first-degree murder, attempted murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and assault on a law enforcement officer.
Thompson told Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway that he was under medication but that it did not affect his decision to plead guilty Wednesday.
Thompson, then 15, armed with a .22-caliber rifle, fatally shot and stabbed his brother James Thompson in their Raleigh home, touching off the murder spree at about 4:20 p.m. Oct. 13, 2022.
It had been a normal day of video games at home after school when at "around 4:20 in the afternoon that day, though, things changed for James and for that neighborhood of Hedingham here in Wake County," assistant district attorney Patrick Latour told the court.
"At 4:20 in the afternoon, this defendant went into one of the rooms at his residence, retrieved a .22-caliber rifle and shot his brother, James, in the back of the head one time," the prosecutor added.
His brother survived that shot but wouldn't withstand the ensuing "57 sharp-force injuries" inflicted by the killer, "most of which [were] in the neck area," Latour said.
Thompson went on to kill Nicole Connors, 52, Gabriel Torres, 29, Mary Marshall, 34, and Susan Karnatz, 49, who had all randomly encountered him around the Hedingham neighborhood.
Marcille Lynn Gardner was walking with Connors, her friend, when they were shot by Thompson after they had gone out to walk their dogs, Latour said. Connors was found dead by her husband and Gardner was severely wounded, the prosecutor said.
"[Gardner] was able to describe the young man in camo that was the one that did this to her," Latour said. "Said that she saw him standing over her, and she cried out and asked why he was doing this to them."
Torres was a Raleigh police officer who was pulling out of his driveway, on his way to work, when Thompson fatally shot him. Torres did not have a chance to pull a weapon when he was hit by shotgun fire at close range, the prosecutor said.
When pursuing officers and police dogs tracked down Thompson, he shot himself in the head but survived and was taken to the hospital, prosecutors said.
Showing no apparent emotion, Thompson looked straight forward or down as a prosecutor describe the killings Wednesday afternoon.
Interviews with his parents and teachers did not reveal a clear motive for the shootings, authorities said.
A search of his computer and phone did show that Thompson had been researching mass shootings, looking up "varying types of police responses" and "the types of weapons that were used by other mass shooters," Latour said.
Thompson was scheduled to go to trial for the murders in February. The judge set Feb. 2 for a sentencing hearing that could take multiple days.
Thompson was a minor when the crimes were committed, taking capital punishment off the table. He could be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
