Officials in the southeast US city of Raleigh reported that at least five people were killed in a shooting on Thursday, including an off-duty police officer. They also announced that a suspect had been apprehended.
According to Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin, the incident took place close to the Neuse River Greenway, a well-liked local trail.
“Raleigh is experiencing a terrible and heartbreaking day. Today shortly after 5:00 pm, several persons were shot, she said during a press conference.
Five fatalities have been verified by the Raleigh Police Department. One of them was a Raleigh police officer who wasn’t on duty.
After 9:30 p.m., Raleigh Police Lieutenant Jason Borneo said that the gunman, a “white male adolescent,” had been apprehended.
The mayor had earlier stated that police had “contained” the shooter “in a property in the vicinity.”
Borneo said that one victim’s condition was still critical.
Although Borneo stated that an injured police officer had been freed, a canine officer who had been hurt was also among the wounded.
According to the website Gun Violence Archive, there have been more than 34,000 shooting deaths in the United States so far in 2022 alone, with more than half of those deaths coming from suicide.
Baldwin stated at the press conference that “we must do more.”
“This senseless violence in America must end. We have to deal with gun violence. We have a lot of work to do and a lot of grieving to do tonight.
After Nikolas Cruz, who in 2018 shot and killed 17 people at a Florida high school, was given life in prison rather than the death penalty by a jury, the North Carolina massacre took place.
Mass shootings have regularly shocked the country and reignited the heated cultural debate over gun regulation, which has made little progress in Congress.
However, several of the most recent gun rampages, such as those at a Texas school and a supermarket frequented by African-Americans in New York state, shocked the nation particularly and compelled lawmakers to agree in June to adopt modest gun control reforms for the first time in thirty years.
According to the Small Arms Survey study, there were close to 400 million weapons in use among civilians in the United States in 2017, or 120 guns for every 100 persons.
