On Thursday night, Mary Marshall was walking her beloved dog near the Neuse River Greenway Trail in her usually quiet Raleigh, N.C., neighborhood when shots rang out.
The U.S. Navy vet, 35, immediately called her fiancé, Robert Steele.
“She says, ‘I need you to come home right now,'” Steele toldNBC’sSundayTodayin an emotional interview. “‘Immediately. Scruff, our dog has slipped his collar, and I just heard gunshots.'”
Mary Marshall and her dog, Scruff.
While Marshall was running after her dog, she was shot and killed.
When Steele got there, he couldn’t find Mary. Instead, he saw flashing red lights, police officers and detectives swarming the area.
Raleigh, N.C., shooting.Chris Seward/AP/Shutterstock
“They started asking about tattoos that Mary has,” he said, breaking down in tears. “We knew. We knew she was gone.”
Marshall was one of five people killed Thursday night, starting at about 5 p.m., when 15-year-old Austin Thomas allegedly opened fire in the Hedingham neighborhood near Osprey Cove Drive and Bay Harbor Drive, said police.
Mary Marshall.Facebook
On Friday morning, policeidentifiedthe victims as Nicole Connors, 52; Susan Karnatz, 49; Marshall; off-duty Raleigh police officer Gabriel Torres, 29; and the suspect’s older brother, James Thompson, 16.
Two others, including another police officer, were wounded, say officials.
The alleged shooter was arrested and taken to a local hospital where he was listed in critical condition, police said.
It is unclear why he was taken to the hospital.
Prosecutors say he will be tried as an adult.
Marshall’s dog was later found, Marshall’s older sister, Meaghan McCrickard, toldNBC News.
She said Marshall’s dog “Scruff sat with her all night and didn’t leave,” NBC News reports.
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Marshall was “the most amazing, wonderful person,” McCrickard told NBC News.
Marshall spent four years in the Navy stationed in California and spent time in Japan, McCrickard said.
Her little sister could also be “goofy” at times and was the “heart and soul” of the chiropractic office she ran in Raleigh, she told NBC News.
Marshall’s father, Thomas Marshall, broke down when he toldSunday Todayabout how excited he was to walk his daughter down the aisle.
“I was really looking forward to it. I couldn’t wait for it,” he toldSunday Today, as his voice cracked with emotion.
Her mother, Ginny Marshall, said she was looking forward to the mother-daughter dance, NBC News reports.
“Mary’s birthday is next week and she was going to be married in two weeks,” Ginny Marshall told NBC News, as she wept for the loss of her daughter. “We don’t know what to do.”
Steele toldSunday Todayhe is wearing the wedding ring that Marshall would have given him when they got married on Oct. 29.
“The engraving is ‘You’re my favorite place,’ " he said.
source: people.com
