How a fight for police videos led to 2 attorneys being shot outside Wake courthouse
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- A 2021 Rolesville verbal altercation between neighbors spawned the lawsuit.
- The two attorneys shot were from Fox Rothschild, per Rolesville's release.
- Court orders and recovered body‑camera footage drove ongoing motions and appeals.
The lawsuit that led to two attorneys being shot outside the Wake County courthouse Friday started with a 2021 altercation between a Rolesville woman and her neighbors.
The attorneys, Mary Harris and Jeffrey Whitley, were shot around 10:30 a.m. Friday, according to Raleigh police and the town of Rolesville.
The suspect, Gwendolyn White, had became belligerent during a hearing with them. She left the courthouse and returned in her car and shot them, according to information provided by the municipalities. Police said they are charging White with two counts of attempted murder.
A spokesperson for the town of Rolesville confirmed the hearing involved an ongoing civil suit filed by White against the town’s police department.
The attorneys are from the private firm Fox Rothschild, which has represented the town for decades.
Todd A. Rodriguez, Fox Rothschild’s Firmwide Managing Partner, issued a statement Friday night, offering support to Harris, Whitley and the office’s staff. He said the firm’s leadership team traveled to Raleigh to better monitor the situation. He also thanked first responders for their quick assistance.
“We cannot adequately express our deep sadness and concern,” he wrote. “The safety and well-being of our people is our highest priority.”
About the case White v. Rolesville Police Department
According to court documents, the court case goes back to a March 3, 2021, incident in which the Rolesville Police Department responded to a “verbal altercation” between White and her neighbors.
Nearly a year later, in February 2022, White filed a petition seeking law enforcement recordings from the police department in the town in northeastern Wake County, according to court records.
Police responded that they had deleted the footage after 30 days, under the town’s policy to dispose of footage that doesn’t have evidentiary value, isn’t made part of a case or hasn’t been requested to be put on a CD, the town’s attorney wrote in court filings.
On Feb. 24, 2022, a judge presided over a hearing that police didn’t attend “due to technical difficulties,” according to a document filed by Harris, the Fox Rothschild attorney representing the town in the case.
The judge ordered at that hearing that all body-camera footage be released.
Rolesville police worked with information technology providers to recover the deleted footage. By the following April, officials had recovered three videos and given those to their attorney, who turned it over to the judge to review, Harris wrote in a court filing.
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Gwendolyn White seeks new trial, accuses judge of bias
Around August 2025, White filed a motion accusing the town of contempt of court, saying Rolesville hadn’t given her all the videos.
On Jan. 12, a judge ordered the town to provide White with a jump drive with the videos it had found, an affidavit from the police chief and a related form stated.
White later reached out to the town and said the jump drive didn’t contain any footage, so the town shared the footage via a file-sharing platform, which White downloaded on Jan. 15, Harris said in court documents.
The next day, White filed an appeal for a new trial. The town objected, saying the police department had “acted with the best intentions in response” to her requests.
White filed another motion accusing one of the town’s attorneys of improperly communicating with the judge before the January hearing. White asked Judge Jennifer Bedford to recuse herself from future hearings, alleging personal bias and other concerns.
A hearing on the motion for a new trial was scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Friday in the Wake County Courthouse, the court calendar stated.
This story was originally published May 22, 2026 at 5:34 PM with the headline "How a fight for police videos led to 2 attorneys being shot outside Wake courthouse."
