RALEIGH, N.C. — A judge sentenced 18-year-old Austin Thompson to life in prison without the possibility of parole Friday for the October 2022 shooting deaths of five people in a Raleigh neighborhood.
Thompson, who was 15 at the time of the attack, was charged and sentenced as an adult.
The sentencing follows Thompson's decision to plead guilty in January to murder and other charges related to the killing rampage. The victims of the shooting included a Raleigh police officer and Thompson's own brother.
The shooting took place in Thompson's Raleigh neighborhood during October 2022. Thompson had been poised to go on trial in state court before his attorneys announced he would instead plead guilty to all charges against him. Prior to the plea, his legal team had filed months of pretrial motions intended to limit certain testimony and evidence.
Thompson’s attorneys wrote that the decision to avoid a trial was an effort to “save the community and the victims from as much additional infliction of trauma as possible.”
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