Shooting in Raleigh: City reviewing alert system after some Hedingham neighbors were left in the dark
The city of Raleigh says it's reviewing the response to last week's shooting, including how it handles communication with the public.
Some WRAL viewers expressed concern that people weren’t notified about the active shooter situation as it was ongoing.
Several residents of the Hedingham neighborhood and around Raleigh said they had no idea what was happening last Thursday as the events were unfolding because they didn’t get any sort of alert or notification. They heard from neighbors and friends, with one woman saying she found out Friday morning – a day later – at the gym.
This week, they’re still feeling unsafe and asking who’s job is it to let people know there’s an active shooter in the area.
A frantic 911 call was made at 5:26 last Thursday by a cyclist on the greenway, unaware of what was unfolding.
"There seems to be a lot of people outside right now," the cyclist told 911.
That call came at least 10 minutes after emergency officials were told it was an active shooter situation.
"It seems like there might be a shooting going on over there, hold on okay?" said the operator.
The caller was stunned.
"WHAT?!" they replied.
A call to 911 can save a life, a call from 911 can save a community. That's the messaging around the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) - the federally-funded notification program used to send alerts when there’s a major weather event or public safety issue, like an active shooter.
Instead though, residents were relying on each other.
Jerry Karth lives on the opposite side of the Neuse River Trail and found out about the shooting from his neighbor.
"You heard gunshots and you go 'Ok, is that the gun club down the road or what's going on?'" Karth said. "Nobody knew. And all of a sudden, you had cop cars screaming down the subdivision and police are armed and you’re wondering what’s happening."
The county told WRAL News they could have sent out IPAWS alerts, targeted to a tenth-of-a-mile of where the rampage was happening. However, they don’t have the authority to make that decision – Raleigh police would have had to request it. County leaders said that didn’t happen.
One Raleigh woman went to TikTok to voice her frustration.
"My neighbor was out there sweeping off her porch with her dogs and I had to go out and tell her to get inside because she was unaware we were in an active shooter situation," she said.
It’s part of what the city is now investigating. We’re told they’re putting together a comprehensive review of the incident.
"The challenge during active shooter event is location," said Keith Acree, Public Information Officer with the North Carolina Department of Public Safety. "It is really hard to do that with cell phone based system because it’s going to have a ton bleed over."
"It is difficult to narrow to one small area like a neighborhood, like Hedingham in this case," Acree said. "It depends on the technology and software being used but ultimately, the range is going to be larger than just that area."
Still, people say not only is it frustrating, they didn’t receive anything but also scary.
"How many people could’ve been saved on the greenway if we would’ve used the technology to warn people," Karth said.
The city told us they used social media and apps like Nextdoor, posting updates and links to media reports on the 16 nearby neighborhoods.
The county said Wake County residents can send geographic alerts by using publicly accessible contact information databases available such as white pages, yellow pages and VoIP/Cellular data. Those interested can register for alerts and add current contact information and provide a list of addresses they would like to be alerted for.
Not every cell phone is set up to receive automatic government alerts. Most mobile phones ship from the manufacturer with the test alerts option disabled. The phone's user must enable this option to receive a Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) test.
Click here on how to check if your phone settings include these notifications.
