PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) – A man will spend the rest of his life in prison for attempting to kill a Portsmouth police officer.
Will Patterson, Jr. was sentenced to more than 80 years in prison Wednesday for shooting Officer Angelina Baaklini-White in November 2017.
The shooting happened on Hickory Street when Patterson was just 15 years old. Baaklini-White was patrolling the Mt. Hermon neighborhood when she recognized Patterson was a runaway. She tried to detain the teen to take him home, but he shot her as she was handcuffing him.
Baaklini-White was seriously injured in the shooting, spending more than two weeks at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital recovering. She still needs a special pump to maintain proper circulation in her damaged leg and has limited function in her left arm and hand.
Patterson was convicted of 12 felony charges, including attempted aggravated murder, in September. It was Patterson’s second conviction in the case. He was first convicted in April 2018; however, that conviction was thrown out in 2020 when an appeals judge ruled he was incompetent during his trial, and was denied his rights to due process and effective defense counsel.
