[elfsight_social_share_buttons id=”1″]

Residents and officials in North Carolina and Connecticut are on high alert following separate senseless attacks over a course of 24 hours that resulted in at least seven people losing their lives. The incidents were unrelated, but both assaults involved the untimely deaths of police officers.

The suspect in a shooting that left five people dead in North Carolina’s capital city is a 15-year-old male, the local police chief confirmed on Friday, saying that he was in critical condition.

Police have yet to determine a motive for the shooting, which on Thursday turned a quiet middle-class neighborhood in Raleigh into a two-mile crime scene, Police Chief Estella Patterson said during a news conference on Friday.

The suspect began his attack when he opened fire with a rifle on a street in Raleigh’s Hedingham neighborhood, killing two, before fleeing to a walking trail nearby and killing three more. The victims ranged from a 16-year-old to an individual in their late 50s, including an off-duty police officer who was in his car.

Witnesses say the suspect was dressed in camouflage and appeared eerily calm while carrying out the attack.

Patterson did not identify the suspect by name.

He was taken into custody three hours after the shooting began following a long search at the Neuse River Greenway, the trail where the suspect had fled. Residents were ordered to stay indoors during the manhunt.

During the briefing Gov. Roy Cooper called the incident an “infuriating and tragic act of gun violence.”

“I think we all know the core truth — no neighbor, no parent, no child, no grandparent, no one should feel this fear in these communities — no one.”

At a press briefing Raliegh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin decried the latest outbreak of gun violence in America, saying “We must do more. We must stop this mindless violence in America. We must address gun violence.”

Patterson did not provide details on the shooting itself and could not say whether the suspect is related to the victims.

Two additional people were wounded in the shooting: a police officer who was treated and released, and another person who was hospitalized in critical condition, Patterson said.

Connecticut ambush leaves two officers dead

Two police officers in central Connecticut were killed and another wounded by a gunman who lured them to a residence with a fake 911 call and opened fire, state police said on Thursday, adding the suspect also died in the shootout which happened a day earlier.

Officers from the city of Bristol responded to a call at 10:30 p.m. local time Wednesday and were met by the suspect, Nicholas Brutcher, 34, outside of a residence where a domestic disturbance had been reported, Connecticut State Police said in a statement.

Officer Alex Hamzy, 34, was killed in the exchange of gunfire. Sergeant Dustin Demonte, 35, was fatally wounded and died after being taken to Bristol Hospital. Officer Alec Iurato, 26, was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, where he was undergoing surgery for serious wounds.

“Words cannot express the sadness and grief that brings me before you this morning,” Bristol Police Chief Brian Gould said as his voice briefly cracked during a news conference on Thursday.

“Our community has been rocked, our police department has been rocked,” he said, calling the fallen officers “heroes.”

Brutcher was killed at the scene while his bother Nathan, 32, was wounded and taken to the hospital, police said.

Connecticut State Police said it appeared that the 911 call was a deliberate act to lure law enforcement to the scene, calling it a “very complex, ongoing investigation.”

The shooting occurred about a half-mile from the headquarters of the ESPN sports television network in the community of 700,000 people, located about 20 milessouthwe st of Hartford, the state capital.

Copyright 2022 Thomson/Reuters (Additions and edits for FISM News by Michael Cardinal)