Gastonia woman shot at police and killed police officers

According to her autopsy report, 31-year-old Laporshia Shanks was shot more than a dozen times. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

But before she was shot, Laporshia Shanks shot a police officer, who was shot twice in the legs. He was hospitalized at CaroMont Regional Medical Center and later released, according to an investigative report by medical examiner Dr. Steven Tracy.

Shanks' decision to shoot a police officer was at odds with the person her friends and family knew her to be, and her death was an enormous shock to everyone who knew her, according to several family members.

Laporshia, a graduate of Ashbrook High School, grew up in Gastonia and most recently worked at Freightliner. Shanks was known for her generosity, her mother said. She would go shopping and buy groceries, gloves and hats and donate everything to people who were homeless during the winter months.