Hedingham shooting families seek security records in civil lawsuit

The families of the people killed in Hedingham’s 2022 mass shooting are pressing a Wake County judge to force a private security company to turn over records they say could show whether the neighborhood’s patrol system failed when residents first reported gunfire.

In a motion filed April 29, the families asked Capitol Special Police LLC to produce GPS data, video, emails and other documents tied to Officer Nicole Locke, who was on duty the day Austin Thompson carried out the attack. The filing also seeks records involving complaints the company may have received about Thompson’s family and other documents connected to Oct. 13, 2022, when Thompson killed five people and wounded two others in Hedingham and along the Neuse River Greenway.

The plaintiffs argue the company has stalled in discovery and say the GPS and video material may be the only objective evidence of where Locke was and how she responded after residents started reporting gunfire. Their filing says some GPS data and video were deleted and some emails were lost during a change in internet service providers, a dispute that could shape whether the case moves to trial or settles.

The civil lawsuit was filed in October 2024 and names Thompson, his parents, the Hedingham Community Association, Capitol Special Police and Locke. It alleges that complaints about Thompson’s behavior were raised months before the shooting and that the HOA and security company did not respond adequately. The HOA is now under new management.

The case has already been slowed by another records fight. On Jan. 12, 2026, a court order required Raleigh to provide summaries of certain police calls to Hedingham before the shooting, but not full investigative files or body-camera video. The families’ latest motion comes as the civil trial, which had been set for July 6, 2026, is being pushed to Jan. 11, 2027 to allow more discovery and settlement talks. A mediation session on March 27 ended in impasse by April 1.

Thompson pleaded guilty and was sentenced in February 2026 to life in prison without parole. He was 15 when the shooting happened and is now 18, housed in restrictive confinement at Central Prison while his lawyers are expected to appeal. Raleigh police officer Gabriel Torres was among the victims, and reporting on the case says he was leaving for work and tried to intervene before he was killed. The fight over security records now reaches beyond one lawsuit, raising questions about how private patrols are documented, monitored and held accountable in Raleigh neighborhoods.