Mary Marshall, 35, was less than a month away from her wedding when she was shot and killed by a 15-year-old on Thursday.

Ms Marshall was to be married on 29 October. Her and her fiance had reportedly rented a pair of cabins in the mountains and were preparing to decorate them with pumpkins for a Halloween-themed wedding.

NBC News reports that friends from all over the country — and one from overseas — were planning to attend the wedding.

“She’s got a friend coming from Japan, somebody coming from Florida, from Texas,” her sister, Meghan McCrickard told the outlet. “As excited as she was to be married, I know she was more excited to have all the people she loved the most at the same place at the same time.”

Ms McCrickard said “it was going to be the most beautiful, fall, spooky wedding.”

Raleigh police confirmed that the five people killed during a mass shooting on Thursday evening as Nicole Connors, 52, Susan Karnatz, 49, Mary Marshall, 35, Gabriel Torres, 29, and a 16-year-old minor who authorities did not name.

Marcille Gardner, 59 was wounded and is still recovering in the hospital. Casey Joseph Clark, 33, was also wounded but was released from a hospital after receiving treatment.

ABC11 reports that the suspect, who police describe as a 15-year-old white male, was also injured and transported to the hospital with life threatening injuries. It is unclear if the injuries were self-inflicted.

Read more in Johanna Chisholm’s story at The Independent below:

As the year begins to draw to a close, the death tally for the numbing gun violence epidemic in America continues to grow.

So far, more than 34,000 people have died in shootings in the US in 2022, with more than half of those deaths being recorded as suicide, according to the Gun Violence Archive website.

That same database recorded the mass shooting in Raleigh on Thursday as the deadliest of 17 shootings in North Carolina so far this year.

“We must stop this mindless violence in America. We must address gun violence. We have much to do, and tonight we have much to mourn,” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said at a press conference after the mass slaughter on Thursday.

Reacting to the shooting that left five dead and two injured in Raleigh, governor Roy Cooper called for an end to “mindless violence”.

“Tonight terror has reached our doorstep. The nightmare of every community has come to Raleigh. This is a senseless horrific and infuriating act of violence that has been committed,” Mr Cooper told reporters.

“We must stop this mindless violence in America, we must address gun violence,” the mayor said. “We have much to do, and tonight we have much to mourn.”

Local reports from Raleigh show police removing evidence from a house on the street where Thursday’s mass shooting began. Five people were killed in the attack and two others were wounded.

It is unclear if the home is that of the 15-year-old suspected shooter.

Knightdale High School Principal Keith Richardson issued a statement Friday to parents announcing that one of the school’s students, 16-year-old James Thompson, was killed in the mass shooting that left five dead.

“This is an incredibly difficult time for our school community as well as the broader Raleigh community. We have learned that junior James Thompson was killed in yesterday’s tragic shooting on the Neuse River Greenway. It is an unexpected loss and we are saddened by it,” Mr Richardson wrote. “Our condolences, thoughts, and prayers go out to James’ family, the other victims, their families and all who have been impacted by yesterday’s events.”

His full statement can be read here.

The Raleigh Police Department expressed its gratitude to the public in a social media post Thursday a day after one of its officers was killed and another was wounded during a mass shooting that left five people dead.

Gabriel Torres, 29, was on his way to work at the Raleigh Police Department when he was killed Thursday by a 15-year-old mass shooting.

The department said during a press conference that Mr Torres was off duty but was headed to work when he was shot.

Mary Marshall, 35, was less than a month away from her wedding when she was shot and killed by a 15-year-old on Thursday.

Ms Marshall was to be married on 29 October. Her and her fiance had reportedly rented a pair of cabins in the mountains and were preparing to decorate them with pumpkins for a Halloween-themed wedding.

NBC News reports that friends from all over the country — and one from overseas — were planning to attend the wedding.

“She’s got a friend coming from Japan, somebody coming from Florida, from Texas,” her sister, Meghan McCrickard told the outlet. “As excited as she was to be married, I know she was more excited to have all the people she loved the most at the same place at the same time.”

Ms McCrickard said “it was going to be the most beautiful, fall, spooky wedding.”

Thomas Karnatz, 52, remembered his wife Susan, 49, in a poem he posted to social media.