Widow of officer killed in Hedingham shooting plays daughter’s message for killer
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- Jasmin Torres played daughter Layla’s recorded message about missing her dad.
- Prosecutors detailed Thompson’s Oct. 13, 2022 killings, starting at his home.
- Thompson, 15 then, pleaded to five murders and faces five life terms.
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Raleigh mass shooting in Hedingham neighborhood
On Oct. 13, 2022, seven people were shot in Raleigh, NC, in the Hedingham neighborhood near the Neuse River Greenway Trail. Five were killed, including a Raleigh police officer. High school student Austin Thompson was charged with their murders. Read The News & Observer’s ongoing coverage of the mass shooting, Thompson’s guilty plea and his sentencing hearing.
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The morning Jasmin Torres headed out for the third day of the sentencing hearing for the man responsible for the 2022 Hedingham mass shooting, her daughter, Layla, asked if she could come say something to him.
Jasmin Torres, the widow of slain Raleigh police officer Gabriel Torres, had already told Layla a “bad guy” had hurt her father and that he is in heaven now. And she knew she couldn’t take her daughter to the hearing. So she recorded her instead.
From her phone, Jasmin Torres played a recording for the courtroom Thursday asking her daughter what she wanted to tell Austin Thompson, the teen who pleaded guilty to five counts of murder in the Hedingham shootings.
Layla said she wanted Thompson to “say sorry to my da-da. I miss him so much.”
Though Layla has a pillow with a cut-out of her dad’s face, she still feels “sad without the real dad.”
As Torres stopped the recording, Austin Thompson’s father, Alan, blew his nose, dropping his head as he softly cried.
In her victim impact statement, Torres said Layla goes to Gabriel Torres’ tombstone so often she no longer needs help finding it.
Layla’s family drawings always include her, her mom and her dad with wings.
Jasmin Torres recalled that one day, seeing other children at school, Layla asked if she thought those children had a mother and a father.
A few nights ago, Layla looked at the pillow with her father’s face, frustrated. Torres asked her why, and Layla said “it’s not real.”
“She was given that pillow for comfort,” Torres said. “And now it’s stirring up pain.”
15 at the time of the shootings
Thompson, 15 at the time of the shooting, pleaded guilty to five counts of first-degree murder on Jan. 21. He faces five life sentences for each of the murders plus up to 1,600 months for the other felonies.
Prosecutors said the Hedingham shooting on Oct. 13, 2022, began at Thompson’s house. After playing video games with his brother, James, Austin Thompson grabbed a .22 rifle and shot James in the back of the head.
James managed to stumble to the bathroom before Austin stabbed him 49 times, prosecutors said. Austin then left the house in camouflage clothing with several guns, spotting Nicole Connors and Lynn Gardner as they walked their dogs. He fired five shots, killing Connors and her dog and fracturing Gardner’s face.
Prosecutors said neighbors spotted Thompson jogging up to Torres’ car. He shot through Torres’ windshield and killed him before getting on the greenway and killing Mary Marshall and Susan Karnatz.
Thompson hunkered down in a shed and got into a shootout with Raleigh police officers, prosecutors said. Thompson shot officer Casey Clark in the knee. Thompson also suffered a gunshot wound to his forehead, apparently self-inflicted.
‘It’s two completely different people’
It was rare that Alan Thompson would call his son James and James wouldn’t pick up, he testified Thursday.
So Alan Thompson was frustrated when James didn’t pick up the afternoon of Oct. 13, 2022, he testified.
Alan Thompson had taken a lunch break and wanted to see if his sons wanted anything from the store. He assumed James had his PlayStation headset on.
At 4:23 p.m., he called Austin and asked if he wanted anything. Austin said he didn’t, and Alan told him to ask James — by then, Austin would have already killed him. Five or 10 seconds later, Austin calmly said James didn’t want anything, either, his father testified.
Even as Alan Thompson saw police cars race into his neighborhood, he didn’t piece together what had happened, he testified. When police cruisers encircled his house, he gave them his keys and demanded they enter and see if his sons were being held hostage.
When police told Alan Thompson that James was dead and Austin was missing, it “didn’t register.”
As he read his victim impact statement, Alan Thompson said he still doesn’t know Austin’s motive or think he will ever reconcile the boy he knew with the boy who killed five people and shot two others.
“I know he did it, but it’s like it’s two completely different people,” Alan Thompson said.
Prosecutors asked Alan Thompson if his son had any incidents that raised concerns. He could recall two. One time, in sixth grade, Austin was called to the principal’s office for pulling a snappy gum prank on a set of twins who had been bullied all year. Another time, a boy pushed Austin while he was getting off the bus, which Alan Thompson said he resolved amicably with the boy’s father.
Otherwise, both James and Austin were straight-A students who were in the top 10% of their respective classes, he testified.
Alan Thompson started to take his boys out hunting in 2019 when James and Austin were 13 and 12 respectively, he testified. The three hunted for ducks, doves and turkey. Both took to hunting, but Austin went more often. When Austin asked to first shoot a pistol in 2019, “he was almost as accurate as me,” Alan Thompson said.
Prosecutors asked Alan Thompson why he had not locked up his firearms — Thompson was convicted of storing a firearm with a minor’s unsafe access in September 2024, The News & Observer reported.
Thompson testified he raised his boys the same way he was raised and left them firearms in case someone broke into the house. Thompson said he never saw his boys misuse firearms.
Investigators also seized 160 boxes of ammunition from the home, search warrants revealed. Thompson testified he stocked up on 9 mm ammunition during the COVID-19 pandemic when ammunition was expensive and hard to find.
In his statement, Alan Thompson said raising James and Austin were the best 16 years of his life. He recounted reading the book “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” as their favorite nighttime routine, jet skiing on Falls Lake and going to Goodberry’s on the last day of school.
When asked by Austin Thompson’s attorneys what his relationship with his son was like now, Alan Thompson testified that he didn’t “expect people to understand this” before looking down, curling his head into his chest and crying as he said he loved him.
“I love my sons, and I’ll always love my sons,” Alan Thompson testified. “But my relationship with Austin has changed because of what he did.”
This story was originally published February 5, 2026 at 11:53 AM with the headline "Widow of officer killed in Hedingham shooting plays daughter’s message for killer."
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