Shanika Penn, age 37, a Black/African American female from Reidsville, North Carolina, was shot and killed late on the night of June 12, 2025. Police were called just before midnight to the 500 block of Roach Street, where responders found Shanika Penn, age 37, alongside another victim, 42-year-old Samuel L. Brooks. Despite lifesaving efforts by officers and Rockingham County EMS, both were pronounced dead at the scene.
Through the early hours that followed, investigators canvassed the neighborhood, appealing for doorbell and surveillance footage and eyewitness accounts from around 11 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., trying to reconstruct the path that led to the gunfire on Roach Street. The department’s call for community help underscored the urgency of the case and the narrow window of time in which the shooting unfolded.
Within days, detectives publicly identified a suspect: 45-year-old Dexter Lamar Scales, wanted on two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Samuel Brooks and Shanika Penn, age 37. Authorities announced a reward for information, initially up to $7,000, urging residents and businesses with cameras or knowledge of movements in the area to come forward. Subsequent local updates indicated that the combined reward was later increased to as much as $10,000 as the search intensified.
Arrests followed on the periphery of the case. On June 28, 2025, police arrested 39-year-old Leslie Moyer of Eden as an accessory after the fact to the double homicide. Weeks later, on July 22, 2025, investigators charged Deaja Lamyia Scales with accessory after the fact; she was taken into custody and held in the Rockingham County Detention Center on a secured bond, while officers continued seeking Dexter Lamar Scales.
Public records and memorial notices preserved the bare facts of what happened to Shanika Penn, age 37, fixing the date and place of her death—June 12, 2025, in Reidsville—while the investigation pressed on. Even as images and condolences surfaced online, the portrait that emerged was anchored in the swift, late-night violence on Roach Street and the unresolved pursuit of the man accused of taking her life.
