Correctional Officer Wendy Letitia Shannon

Wendy Letitia Shannon

Correctional Officer Wendy Shannon, Correction Enterprises Manager Veronica Darden, and Correctional Officer Justin Smith were killed during an escape attempt from the Pasquotank Correctional Institute at approximately 3:00 pm.

On October 12th, 2017, several inmates ignited a fire inside the prison's Specialty Sewing Plant as a diversion. The inmates then attacked responding corrections officers with hammers and scissors obtained in the sewing plant. Prison personnel and responding fire department crews were able to bring the fire under control and prevent the escape.

Officer Shannon was transported to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, where she passed away on October 30th, 2017.

Four inmates, ages 23, 28, 29, and 30, were charged with first-degree murder as a result of the incident. The Pasquotank district attorney said he would seek the death penalty against all four.

The first of four, a 23-years-old, was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder on October 21st, 2019. On October 28th, 2019, he was sentenced to death. He was serving a 24-year sentence for the attempted murder of a North Carolina State Trooper in 2013. He shot the trooper four times, twice in the face, in Durham after he pulled him over for a seat belt violation. He was wanted in Vermont for parole violation. He had recently been released thereafter, serving 18 months of two years for more than 100 burglaries, including one in which he stabbed a woman several times. After he shot the trooper, his Durham apartment was searched, where it was discovered, he was making a bomb. A map found nearby of the Raleigh-Durham area was circled with the locations of all the police departments. This resulted in a 40-year sentence in Federal prison. The trooper recovered and returned to duty. On October 28, 2019, a second inmate, now 34, was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death. He was transferred to a prison in another state, ( location unknown). Before the attack he was serving a 24 year sentence for attempted murder in Durham County in 2013.

Officer Shannon was a United States Army Persian Gulf veteran and had served with the North Carolina Division of Prisons for four years. She is survived by her two daughters, one son, her mother, and grandchild.