Woman shoots two lawyers outside Raleigh courthouse, police say

The old Wake County Courthouse is built for civil disputes, not gunfire. But outside the downtown Raleigh building at 300 Fayetteville Street, police said a 57-year-old woman left a 10th-floor hearing, went to her car, came back with a handgun and shot two attorneys as they exited the courthouse just after 10:30 a.m. Friday.

Raleigh Police Chief Rico Boyce identified the suspect as Gwendolyn White of Raleigh and said she had been in the same courtroom with the two victims before becoming "belligerent" during the hearing. Police said White was taken into custody at the scene, and charges of attempted murder were filed as investigators secured the area around the courthouse.

The two wounded attorneys were identified in court documents as Mary K. Harris and Jeffrey R. Whitley, both with Fox Rothschild LLP. They were representing the Town of Rolesville in a civil case involving body-camera video tied to Rolesville police, a matter that sources said had been pending for years. The Town of Rolesville said it was saddened to learn its attorneys had been shot and confirmed that Harris and Whitley were working on the town’s civil matter.

Officials said both lawyers were hospitalized after the shooting. One report said Harris underwent surgery and was in stable condition Friday evening, while Whitley’s condition had not been publicly released. The shooting prompted the closure of both Wake County courthouses for the rest of the day as deputies and police worked the scene in downtown Raleigh.

The violence exposed the vulnerability of people who enter courthouse corridors expecting a legal fight, not a physical one. In a building meant to channel conflict into procedure, the shooting outside the old courthouse sent that dispute into criminal court instead, underscoring how quickly threats can spill beyond courtroom doors and into the public space around them.