WAVY.com

72-year-old man sentenced in ‘mistaken identity’ shooting that killed beloved Norfolk teacher

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A 72-year-old man has been sentenced to 22 years in prison for fatally shooting a beloved Norfolk teacher in December 2017.

Edward Shaw was sentenced Friday in Norfolk Circuit Court on charges of second-degree murder and one count of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.


Shaw shot Caroline Hendrix in the 300 block of Virginian Drive Dec. 31, 2017.

Authorities have said the shooting was a case of mistaken identity.

Teniqu Cushman

The bullet was meant for a man named Alex Novak. Both Shaw and Novak were romantically involved with a woman named Teniqu Cushman.

Last October, Cushman was given an active sentence term of six years and seven months. She pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in 2018, in a case of mistaken identity.

Cushman admitted she told Shaw to kill Novak and provided him with information, such as Novak’s address and car.

Hendrix and her friend Novak were house-sitting on Virginian Drive on New Year’s Eve. Shaw knew his target would be there because Cushman had told him. But when he shot someone in the driver’s seat of the friend’s vehicle parked in the driveway — it was Hendrix, not her friend, who took the two bullets that killed her.

Hendrix was a teacher at Oceanair Elementary School.

Caroline Hendrix