(Reuters) – Distressed callers who dialed 911 as a deadly shooting unfolded in Raleigh, North Carolina, last week described chilling scenes of bleeding bodies lying on the ground, screams and gunshots ringing out in a quiet neighborhood.
Recordings of the calls released by Raleigh police late on Friday captured the fear and horror that gripped the streets of the city’s Hedingham neighborhood on Thursday, where authorities said a 15-year-old male suspect shot and killed five people, and was only apprehended after an hours-long manhunt.
“There is a lady, unconscious along the trail,” one 911 caller told the operator in an increasingly distraught voice. “Oh my God… She is bleeding.”
Another caller said he heard multiple gunshots and people screaming outside of his home. Some callers spoke in hushed voices, hiding inside their homes as the shooting unfolded.
“I got one male down,” one man frantically told the 911 operator. He later identified the victim as an off-duty Raleigh police officer and said the man was shot in the chest.
After he was apprehended by police near the Neuse River Greenway, a local walking and biking trail, the suspect was taken to a North Carolina hospital were he was in critical condition, Raleigh Police Chief Estella Patterson said during a news conference on Friday.
Authorities did not say what might have motivated the alleged shooter to open fire in the neighborhood and on the trail where people were jogging and riding their bikes.
The shooting spree began at 5 p.m. (2100 GMT) on the streets of the middle-class neighborhood, where residents were told to remain in their homes for hours as police conducted a massive search.
Officials said the shootings rattled residents throughout the state capital, a city of about 500,000 people known as a center for high-tech research.
Three women – ages 52, 49 and 35 – and a 16-year-old boy were among those killed. A 29-year-old officer who died in the shooting was identified as Gabriel Torres, who had been headed to work when the incident unfolded, according to Chief Patterson.
Two people were wounded: a police officer who was treated and released, and a 59-year-old woman who was hospitalized in critical condition, she added.
(Reporting by Maria Caspani; Editing by Sandra Maler)
