RALEIGH, N.C. — A few doors down from the scene of Raleigh’s mass shooting, children waited for the school bus Friday morning and neighbors walked their dogs as helicopters swirled overhead.
”It was crazy,” said Gary Devone, walking his pitbull as the sun rose on Osprey Cove Drive. “But I guess that’s why we protect ourselves.”
Behind him, close enough to toss a Frisbee, the Neuse River Greenway ran behind a row of houses, easy access for hundreds who jog, walk and bike daily.
”It’s right there,” said Devone, pointing.
This section of Hedingham could be anywhere in America, rows of two story houses with sedans in the driveway, dog-walkers out at dawn. Houses decorated with banners reading “Welcome Fall” and “Home Sweet Home.”
Multiple officers appeared to be searching a house on Castle Pines Drive, a few blocks from the river. Police tape stretched across the small lane. After a massive manhunt, a single police car blocked a house in the corner of a bend as neighbors walked past, the danger past but a thousand questions remaining.
The neighborhood is so familiar that when the shooting started, neighbors texted each other to stay inside. Many recognized an off-duty officer who lived in the house on the bend, seeing him get out of his car in uniform. The officer was one of the shooting victims.
”He petted my dog,” said Christian Holmes, who works in software sales, Friday morning.
When he learned of the shooting, he said, his stomach dropped.
”I know exactly where he was killing people,” Holmes said. “I walk my pitbull right there. I see regulars. My dog knows dogs on that trail. There’s dads every quarter mile. But, well, if there’s a kid with a gun, he’s got a killing field.”
Deidra Jones, who lives nearby, saw police cars and fire engines rushing by and felt immediate dread.
She had seen a father and son at the suspected house only a few weeks ago, and the father jokingly asked for help, if they needed exercise.
”If that was the family,” she said, “I’m shaken.”
Nyeshia Royal, 38, a stay-at-home mother of two, said she provided refuge in her home for four or five additional elementary school-aged neighborhood kids who were running from the shooting.
“He has a gun!” she said they were screaming. “‘I’m thinking it’s a BB gun. A water gun.’ Then I said, ‘Get in the house!’
“Their parents couldn’t get back into neighborhood. It traumatized the kids. They were crying the whole time.”
The street is always swarming with kids in the late afternoon and early evening, Royal said. “You know you can let them out and be OK.
“This neighborhood is so quiet. I literally just renewed my lease. It’s a kids neighborhood.”
John Bobeng, 83, lives within sight of the scene at Castle Pines and endures the panic around him.
”First you’re seeing Castle Pines and Sahalee on TV,” he said, pointing to his street sign.
“Then it’s officers with their long guns going between the houses. Nah nah nah nah nah. Time to close the garage door and get in the house.”
Bobeng knew Nicole Connor by sight, having often chatted with her while she walked her dog.
”I called it a yipey dog,” he said. “They would walk right by here. He would bark at the sewer. He would bark at me.”
Just up the street, Raleigh firefighters cleaned off a porch with bleach and a hose. The stretch of greenway behind Osprey Cove has been hosed off in three places.
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