PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) – The re-trial got underway Wednesday for Will Patterson, Jr., charged with attempted aggravated murder of a police officer in a November 2017 shooting on Hickory Street in Portsmouth.
Officer Angelina Baaklini was patrolling the Mt. Hermon neighborhood when she recognized Patterson as a listed runaway with the police department. Patterson, 15 at the time, was riding his bike.
Baaklini, now known as Angelina White, was alone and in uniform in her marked police car. She stopped the cruiser and attempted to detain Patterson after confirming who he was. “I’ve got to take you home.”
During the trial, Baaklini-White told the jury that she stood behind Patterson and placed handcuffs on his left wrist. Before she could control his right wrist, he drew a black and silver pistol and shot her below the collarbone near her left shoulder.
According to the officer, Patterson fired five more times. She sustained several wounds including one to a major artery in her left thigh. Patterson fled and a man in the area came to Baaklini-White’s aide and used her radio to summon help. Fellow officers arrived and applied a tourniquet to her badly wounded leg.
Baaklini-White spent more than two weeks at Sentara Norfolk General recovering. To this day, she needs a special pump to maintain proper circulation in her damaged leg, and she has limited function in her left arm and hand. She says she sees a counselor weekly for the psychological scars.
Patterson was certified to stand trial as an adult in the case and was convicted in April 2018 of attempted capital murder, back when Virginia still had the death penalty.
However, that conviction was thrown out in 2020 when an appeals judge ruled that Patterson was incompetent during his trial, and was denied his rights to due process and effective defense counsel.
During the retrial, jurors saw several pictures of Baaklini-White’s injuries, the pistol that Patterson is alleged to have used, and the officer’s body cam video. Shots can be heard and then the camera’s perspective shows how Baaklini-White fell to the ground. Photos also showed large pools of blood on Hickory Street where she had been shot.
Baaklini-White told the jury that early in her recovery, she still held hope that she would one day return to patrolling the streets of Portsmouth.
“Being a cop was taken away from me,” by Patterson, she testified.
She paused several times during her answers and was overcome by emotion when describing the officer applying the tourniquet – “He saved my life.”
She also described when she saw her uniform that had to be cut off her body so that medics could treat her.
Patterson is charged with 12 felonies including attempted aggravated murder of a police officer and several gun charges. His trial resumes Thursday morning.
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