RALEIGH, N.C. — On Saturday, a day scheduled to hold Hedingham’s annual fall festival, residents of this northeast Raleigh community instead gathered at a local park and later in front of a nearby church to remember their friends, family and neighbors lost in Thursday’s mass shooting.
In the late afternoon, a crowd of more than 100 stood outside the Willow Oaks Clubhouse before five portraits of the victims: Officer Gabriel Torres, Nicole Connors, Susan Karnatz, Mary Marshall and James Thompson.
The vigil’s first speaker was Tabatha Smith, a resident and voting representative for the Hedingham Community Association. Smith praised the quick actions of both law enforcement and her neighbors during the shooting.
