A bride-to-be was killed in a mass shooting while trying to rescue her dog just two weeks before her wedding.
Mary Marshall, 34, went after her pet who had slipped his leash before she was gunned down in the shooting that left five people dead in Raleigh, North Carolina last Thursday.
The alleged shooter - a 15-year-old boy - stalked for two miles through the quiet middle-class suburb of Hedingham, killing as he went.
Mary's devastated fiancé described the last time he spoke to her over the phone, shortly after the gunman opened fire.
He told NBC: “She says, ‘I need you to come home right now. Immediately. Scruff, our dog has slipped his collar, and I just heard gunshots.'"
Robert rushed to the area to find it swarming with detectives.
Through tears, he described the moment he realised the woman he was going to marry had been killed.
Robert said: "They started asking about tattoos that Mary has. We knew. We knew she was gone.”
Speaking alongside Mary's parents and sister, he showed the news channel the engraved wedding ring Mary was going to give him on the day they married.
Robert said: “The engraving is ‘You’re my favorite place.’
“I loved when she would wrap me up in her arms and every time that we would cuddle that way, she would whisper in my ear before we went to sleep, ‘You’re my favorite place.’"
Heartbroken dad Thomas Marshall sobbed as he described not being able to walk his daughter down the aisle.
He said: "I was really looking forward to it. I couldn't wait for it."
Through tears, Mary’s sister Meagan McCrickard said: "Him walking her down the aisle. the mother daughter dance and Rob, was all she wanted."
The suspect, who has not been formally identified, was apprehended after a lengthy manhunt and was taken to hospital in a critical condition. It is unclear who inflicted his injuries.
Despite his age prosecutors plan to charge him as an adult, Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said.
Law enforcement have confirmed that the suspect is the brother of 16-year-old James Roger Thompson, who was killed in the shooting.
Apart from James and Mary Marshall, the other named victims include mum-of-three Susan Karnatz, 49, Nicole Connors, 52, and off-duty police officer Gabriel Torres, 29.
Recordings of the calls released by Raleigh police captured the fear and horror that gripped the streets of Hedingham that day.
"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."
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 off-duty Raleigh police officer Gabriel Torresand.
