North Carolina man sentenced to up to 20 years in prison for meatpacking plant shooting

Published 7:50 am Thursday, November 4, 2021

A North Carolina man was sentenced to prison nearly two years after he shot and wounded two people at a meatpacking plant, a prosecutor said.

Bladen County District Attorney Jon David said in a news release that Jaquante Hakeem Williams was sentenced to between 188 months to 250 months in prison on Monday for the attempted murder of two Smithfield Foods Inc. employees.

On Nov. 21, 2019, the Bladen County Sheriff’s Department responded to a report of shots fired at the Smithfield Foods processing facility in Tar Heel, approximately 85 miles (136 km) south of Raleigh.

Get the latest headlines sent to you

Williams was identified as a contract employee who entered the administrative building around 12:14 a.m. and shot two workers. The defendant then fled the scene and discarded his handgun, the news release said. Deputies said Williams surrendered after he ran from the plant into a wooded area.

READ ABOUT MORE NEWS HERE.