Ammo, firearms, letter found in accused Hedingham shooter’s home: warrants
Editor’s Note: This article contains material detailing a homicide that may be considered distressing.
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — New search warrants list items seized from the Hedingham mass shooting suspect’s home. Among those items is a letter written by the suspect where police say he described his brother’s death.
Search warrants show the suspect searched “active shooter nc” on his cell phone as police attempted to track him down.
Austin Thompson, now 16, is accused of shooting and killing five people in Raleigh’s Hedingham neighborhood on Oct. 13, 2022. Two others were injured during the shooting.
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Search warrants say while conducting the initial investigation, police learned that a victim was located inside a residence in the 5300 block of Sahalee Way. The location is Thompson’s family home. Law enforcement found James Thompson, 16, Austin’s brother, in the master bathroom.
An autopsy indicated James suffered a single gunshot wound and multiple stab wounds.
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A search warrant executed at the Sahalee Way home indicate the law enforcement found a note inside the home where the author claimed responsibility for James’s death. Dated Oct. 13, 2022, at 4:25, the search warrant says the letter was signed by Austin Thompson.
Also recovered from the home were a least 10 firearms including shotguns, rifles, and pistols. Search warrants also show there were more than 140 individual boxes of a variety of ammo types. Many of those boxes were empty. Investigators collected several other kinds of ammo outside of those boxes.
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A judge signed off on a request to analyze several email addresses connected to Austin Thompson and his family’s cell phone records.
Investigators say Austin Thompson searched “active shooter nc” during the incident and researched previous active shooter events including the age of suspects, weapons used and police tactics.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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