An 18-year-old who acknowledged killing five people in a North Carolina mass shooting when he was 15 was sentenced on Friday to life in prison without parole. The judge rejected arguments that Austin David Thompson deserved the chance for release decades from now.
The October 2022 attack began at Thompson’s Raleigh home when he shot and repeatedly stabbed his 16-year-old brother, James. Equipped with firearms and wearing camouflage, Thompson then fatally shot four others — including an off-duty city police officer — in his neighborhood and along a greenway. He was arrested in a shed after a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head.
Thompson pleaded guilty last month to five counts of first-degree murder and five other counts, fewer than two weeks before his scheduled trial…