Fiancé of Raleigh mass shooting victim says alert ‘might have saved her life’

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) - The fiancé of one of the Raleigh mass shooting victims is speaking out, calling on Raleigh City Council members to resign.

Robert Steele misses his fiancée, Mary Marshall, every day.

“That memorial was exactly what I was hoping it would be. It was happiness, it was fond memories, it was laughing, it was exactly what Mary would have wanted…but it’s not what that day should have been,” said Steele.

Marshall is one of the five people who died in the October 13th mass shooting in the Hedingham neighborhood in Raleigh.

At Tuesday night’s Raleigh city council meeting, Steele spoke out and asked all eight council members to resign.

“I am calling for your immediate resignations and I have them for you right here,” Steele said during public comment. Steele told CBS 17 no official city-wide alert went out that day—and he believes there should have been.

“Their job as the government is to represent us and take care of us. Three people are dead that don’t have to be because the city decided not to send an alert,” said Steele.

Wake County Emergency Management has a notification system called “Ready Wake,” which allows officials to alert people about things like flooding and police activity, but you have to sign up for the program.

There is also a state-run emergency alert system.

Guidelines show that individual county emergency managers have to contact state emergency management before messages can get sent out.

FEMA has a similar program, but they don’t provide imminent threat notifications.

Steele says he wants an alert system in place.

“An alert anytime between then and 5:15 or even a few minutes later might have saved her life,” said Steele.

Marshall died just weeks before her wedding and her 35th birthday. In a statement, the Raleigh Police Department said:

Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with Mr. Steele and all families affected by this senseless tragedy. City leaders and the Command Staff with the Raleigh Police Department will perform a comprehensive after-action review of all the steps taken during this incident. This includes communication steps. It is a top priority to ensure communication with the public during these types of incidents.

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