For some, Gwendolyn White has become a kind of folk hero — a woman who portrayed herself online as fighting for justice after her mother’s alleged medical abuse and for trying to obtain evidence she said would show neighbors had harassed and poisoned them.

In the days after White was accused of shooting and injuring two attorneys in downtown Raleigh last week, hundreds of people joined a Facebook group created to support her. Dozens donated money to White’s nearly year-old GoFundMe online fundraiser.

But court records and attorneys tell a different story: one of a woman who, like many others with mental illness, became tangled in a court system that documented her spiraling but did not intervene to stop it.

“It is an enormous problem in the system that, when someone who is clearly in need displays those needs within the justice system, that we can’t get them the help they need before something truly horrible happens,” said Seth Blum, one of White’s former attorneys.

White said she doesn’t remember the shooting

On May 22, White left the Wake County courthouse after a judge dismissed the latest motion in her years-long quest for erased Rolesville police videos.

White, 57, walked to her Lexus sedan, drove down Fayetteville Street, and parked in front of the courthouse. As two attorneys representing Rolesville in White’s civil case stepped outside the courthouse, she jogged toward them, pulled out a gun, and fired repeatedly, according to a Raleigh Police Department search warrant.

She remains in jail, denied bail by a judge on two charges of attempted murder.

In a motion that successfully sought an evaluation of White’s mental health, a public defender wrote that White has no memory of the shooting.

A trail of extraordinary allegations

Over the past 30 years, White has left behind more than a dozen dismissed lawsuits and a trail of extraordinary allegations, including neighbors putting poison on her toothbrush and a Baptist church’s congregation members stealing kitchen items.

“White had a lot of interaction with the court system, both on the criminal side and on the civil side,” Blum said. “There were indications throughout her many interactions that she had a potentially significant mental health concern.”

The Rolesville dispute goes back to March 2021, when White called police, accusing her neighbors of pouring chemicals on her yard and breaking into her home, according to court documents.

About a year later, after most of the videos had been erased per police policy, White began a five-year court fight to recover them.

In court documents, White says the videos would show her neighbor confessing to hacking her social media, banking, telephone, security service and other accounts. Police say the videos had no evidence of any crimes, which is why they were deleted after 30 days. They did recover some of the footage and provided it to White.

In addition to the alleged hacking, White alleged in court filings that neighbors poisoned drinks in her refrigerator, slipped harmful medications into her dresser and stole thousands of dollars from her bank account.

In a court motion in White’s attempted murder case, Chief Public Defender Deonte’ Thomas wrote that White claimed Rolesville police had demanded “that she provide schematics of the Pentagon.” When she refused, police and her neighbors spent years threatening her and poisoning her and her mother, White said, according to the motion.

Meanwhile, another case raised questions about White’s mental state: A judge found in 2024 she was not competent to defend herself against a stalking charge her neighbors sought in 2023.

Court records allege White refused to let mother return home

White presented herself online as fighting for her mother’s health and care.

But court documents from 2024 and 2025 allege that White abandoned her mother, Elleen White, at some point and that her actions ultimately did her mother more harm than good.

In October 2024, Gwendolyn White brought then 89-year-old Elleen White to Duke Raleigh Hospital, concerned about “staring spells,” says a court document filed by a Wake County deputy attorney asking a judge to appoint a guardian for White’s mother.

Medical providers discovered and treated a urinary tract infection and adjusted other medications for Elleen White, whose lack of blood flow to the brain had caused dementia that left her too disoriented to take care of herself, a court report states.

After nine days in the hospital, Elleen White was ready to go home. But her daughter refused to come get her or consent to her being placed in another facility, which resulted in a report to Wake County’s Adult Protective Services, court documents state.

It was the fourth time that the county agency tasked with protecting vulnerable adults had been asked to get involved with Elleen White’s care over the last 1 1/2 years, states a November 2024 motion for the appointment of an independent guardian for Elleen White.

The report raised concerns about Gwendolyn White’s “neglect” of her mother and whether she should continue serving as her caretaker.

Staff at the hospital said Elleen White had previously been placed in a nursing facility, but because of Gwendolyn White’s behavior, the facility would not take her back unless another guardian was appointed “due to Gwen’s documented behavior and disruption” in her mother’s care.

The hospital had also barred White from coming onto the property and visiting her mother after they found her recording in the hospital, violating a law that safeguard’s patients privacy, the court documents state.

In June 2025, a month after her mother’s death, White set up a fundraiser on GoFundMe seeking $20,000 to help fight alleged abuse and neglect of her mother by hospital and nursing facility officials.

White claimed that her mother had about 30 sores over her body, that half of her right foot had been burned off from acid and that she had two forms of E. coli. She also claimed that her mother had suffered from a UTI infection, pneumonia, shingles, a bone and blood infection, a caved in chest, and was starved

“The Daughter has never neglected her mother period in 39 yrs and wouldn’t,” White wrote on the fundraising page.

White supporters give thousands, set up Facebook group

Since the shooting, more than 135 people have donated $5,391 to the fund seeking “justice” for Elleen White. It had raised only $441 before last week. The News & Observer was unable to find any lawsuits filed by White or her mother against the hospital or nursing facility in online federal or state court records.

Meanwhile, supporters created a Facebook group called “Friends of Gwendolyn White,” and are discussing new efforts to raise money for attorney fees. Many in the group appear to sympathize with White, comparing their own frustrations with the courts to hers.

“After what rogue people in power did to me and some of my friends I am not surprised at what was done to Ms. White and her mom,” wrote one supporter. “So many conspiracy theories are now revealed to be true.”

Supporters have also criticized two of White’s former attorneys, attacking them online after they shared information that contradicted White’s narrative.

Attorney Aviance Brown volunteered to help White with the Rolesville case in April, Brown said in a video posted on her law office’s Facebook page on May 25.

Brown’s review of the evidence showed that Rolesville had deleted the videos under their retention policy, but worked with external professionals to recover some of the videos Brown reviewed on May 7. Brown asked to withdraw from the case eight days later. Attorneys’ rules of conduct allow judges to release attorneys in instances such as clients taking ”imprudent actions contrary to a lawyer’s advice,” Brown said.

Some supporters have gone so far as to say Brown was driven to shoot the attorneys by what she had allegedly gone through.

“I am deeply disgusted by the online rhetoric that two attorneys who were merely doing their job deserve any form of violence,” Brown said.

Cliff Lampe, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Information, said White’s support reflects broader frustration with wealth inequality and people in power.

“You could read this as much as an indictment of perceived power — the lawyers — as it is support of violence,” Lampe said.

That frustration can be amplified online, where social media strips away context and reduces complex stories to simple narratives that people can fit into their existing beliefs, he said.

Social media also lets people say harmful things without seeing the face-to-face consequences, while rewarding posts that draw likes and comments.

Good attorneys needed, but not always appreciated

In an interview, Blum told The N&O that the courthouse can be confusing, intimidating and overwhelming for vulnerable people. That’s why people need good lawyers to help them navigate it, he said.

But sometimes, he said, people with mental health issues secure an attorney, only for the relationship to break down when the lawyer tells them something they don’t want to hear.

That ability to work with an attorney is part of what courts consider when deciding whether someone is competent to stand trial, Blum said. Such an evaluation is now the next step for White.

Blum said police contacted his office and others who had represented or opposed White to check on their safety after the shooting. But he said he never felt unsafe around White.

“I’m sure nobody who was in the courtroom with her in this most recent incident felt endangered by her,” Blum said. “It’s just really hard to know.”

NC Reality Check is an N&O series holding those in power accountable and shining a light on public issues that affect the Triangle or North Carolina. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email realitycheck@newsobserver.com.

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