A 46-year-old Pitt County woman is behind bars without bond after deputies say she stabbed her boyfriend in the back with a sharp weapon during what court documents describe as a current dating relationship. Shea Bridges was arrested Tuesday and now faces one of North Carolina's most serious non-fatal assault charges.
According to WITN, Pitt County deputies arrested Bridges after warrants alleged she stabbed her boyfriend in the back with a sharp blunt weapon. She was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, along with a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence. WITN reports Bridges is being held in the Pitt County jail without bond.
Under North Carolina General Statute § 14-32(a), assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury is classified as a Class C felony, one of the state's highest-level non-fatal assault offenses, according to the North Carolina General Assembly. Class C felonies can carry long-term prison sentences depending on a defendant's prior record. The misdemeanor domestic violence designation attached to Bridges' case also triggers automatic victim protection provisions under state law, including temporary stay-away orders and weapon surrender restrictions, per the UNC School of Government.
Why She's Being Held Without Bond
The reason Bridges cannot simply post bail comes down to a 2023 change in state law. North Carolina's Pretrial Integrity Act, codified under G.S. § 15A-533 and § 15A-534.1, bars magistrates from setting bail for defendants charged with violent felonies or domestic violence offenses, the UNC School of Government explains. Instead, a district court judge must determine her release conditions within a 48-hour window.
Bridges is not new to serious weapon-related charges in Pitt County. Warrants from November 30, 2025, previously accused her of striking a man in the head with a baseball bat in Greenville, leading to charges of felony assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury and misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon, according to a report shared by Fighting Crime News and Who's Wanted on Facebook. That earlier case resulted in Bridges being held on bond before this week's stabbing allegation. It remains unclear whether the victim in the 2025 baseball bat case is the same person accused of being stabbed this week.
Part of a Broader Pattern in Pitt County
Bridges' arrest lands amid a cluster of severe domestic violence cases in the Greenville area over the past two weeks. On August 25, Pitt County authorities arrested 39-year-old Jace Davis after he allegedly stabbed his girlfriend in the neck with a power drill, a case Hoodline previously reported also resulted in a no-bond hold under the same pre-trial law. Days later, Greenville police arrested 24-year-old Angel Lopez on felony assault charges after warrants alleged he kicked, punched and dragged a victim who required emergency first aid and EMS transport, according to WCTI.
The pattern reflects broader statistics on intimate partner violence in the county. A 2025 Pitt County violence profile compiled by the North Carolina Department of Public Safety found that intimate partner violence was a precipitating factor in half of all female homicide deaths in the county over recent reporting years. Separately, North Carolina Violent Death Reporting System data covering 2014 through 2023 found that an intimate partner or family relationship was identified in 83.3 percent of female homicide cases with known suspects in Pitt County, compared to 51.6 percent for male victims, per the North Carolina Division of Public Health.
Victim advocacy counselors reported a notable increase in severe domestic violence cases across eastern North Carolina during the 2025-2026 holiday season, leading to calls for expanded regional crisis services, WCTI News 12 reported in January. Pitt County was also selected as a national pilot site for a federal Domestic Violence Homicide Initiative, which trains sheriff's deputies to identify intimate partner risk factors during on-scene calls and connects officers with local victim advocates, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Key questions remain unresolved in Bridges' case, including the current medical condition of the boyfriend she is accused of stabbing and whether any claims of self-defense or mutual conflict will surface as the case moves through court. All charges against Bridges remain allegations at this stage, pending further judicial proceedings.
