An 18-year-old pleads guilty to five murders in the 2022 Raleigh shooting that killed five, including his brother.

In order to avoid a trial scheduled for February 2025, Austin Thompson, 18, intends to enter a guilty plea to five counts of murder in the 2022 Raleigh mass shooting that claimed the lives of five people, including his brother. After shooting and stabbing his brother in his neighborhood, he started attacking other people, including Gabriel Torres, an off-duty police officer. Thompson, who was 15 at the time, was discovered in a shed with several weapons and a self-inflicted gunshot wound that resulted in a brain injury, which his attorneys claim has an impact on his mental health. The prosecution intended to claim the crimes were particularly horrible. He is too old to be executed. His eligibility for parole after 25 years or life without parole will be decided at a sentencing hearing. Lorrin Freeman, the district attorney for Wake County, confirmed the plea and offered his sympathies to the families of the victims.