Melissa J. White, a 23-year-old White / Caucasian female from Swansea, Massachusetts, died in the early morning hours of August 24, 2014, after a confrontation on Ocean Grove Avenue ended with a gunshot. Known as “Missy” in her obituary, she was found by Swansea police and paramedics lying in the street near 356 Ocean Grove Avenue with an apparent gunshot wound to the chest.
She was rushed across state lines to Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, but she was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
The shooting happened at about 1:30 to 1:35 a.m., after police received multiple 911 calls reporting gunfire in the Ocean Grove area of Swansea. Early reports described a neighborhood dispute that had escalated through the night. Prosecutors later said White and two men had gone to the home of Timothy R. Levesque after an earlier altercation involving one of Levesque’s sons. By the time Levesque came outside, the group had left in a pickup truck, and he followed them, later saying he wanted to get the license plate number.
The confrontation continued when Levesque caught up with the vehicle near Ocean Grove Avenue. Prosecutors said he approached the truck and struck the driver, identified in court reporting as Jacob King. White then got out of the vehicle. According to the prosecution’s account, she confronted Levesque, and at some point she was heard saying words to the effect of, “What are you going to do, shoot me?” A shot was then fired, striking her in the chest.
Levesque, then 56, was arrested at the scene without incident. He was identified as a Swansea resident, a retired Massachusetts corrections officer, and the father of a Swansea police officer. He was initially charged with murder and assault and battery and was arraigned in Fall River District Court. At his arraignment, he was ordered held without bail.
From the beginning, Levesque claimed the shooting was self-defense. His attorney said White had lunged at him with a crowbar or similar tool, and that Levesque fired because he believed he was in danger. The defense also said Levesque had a license to carry and used a legally owned firearm. Prosecutors disputed the self-defense claim, pointing to witness accounts that did not support the idea that White was armed when she approached him. One witness account described hearing the sound of metal hitting asphalt after the shooting, raising the prosecution’s argument that the tool may not have been in White’s hand at the moment she was shot. Police reportedly recovered a foot-long cat’s paw tool from the scene, while White’s friends denied that she had been carrying a crowbar.
The case took years to reach trial. By the time proceedings began in August 2017, Levesque was being tried on a manslaughter charge rather than murder. In court, the two sides told starkly different stories: the prosecution described an armed man who pursued a vehicle after a neighborhood dispute, escalated the confrontation, struck the driver, and shot White when she intervened; the defense described a frightened homeowner confronting people who had come to his property after an earlier conflict and then being attacked before firing in self-defense.
On August 22, 2017, a jury found Timothy Levesque not guilty. He was acquitted of manslaughter in Melissa White’s death. While he had been arrested soon after the shooting and originally faced serious charges, the trial ended without a conviction.
