CHARLOTTE – Dyral Keith Shankle, 34, of Wadesboro, N.C., has been sentenced to 78 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, on charges relating to him entering a hospital with a gun in his hand, announced William T. Stetzer, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina last week.

Court documents and Shankle’s sentencing hearing, on Jan. 22, 2020, at approximately 11 p.m., Shankle drove his vehicle to a Wadesboro hospital emergency room. When Shankle arrived at the hospital, he got out of his vehicle and ran into the hospital holding a gun in his hand. Records show that when the hospital security officer asked Shankle to hand over his gun, Shankle refused and claimed that “people were coming after him.” The security officer was eventually able to take the firearm, which was loaded with a high capacity magazine, after Shankle moved his finger off the trigger.

Shankle was subsequently treated by hospital staff for a gunshot wound. Over the course of the investigation, law enforcement recovered two additional firearms that belonged to Shankle, ecstasy pills, marijuana and more than $10,000 in cash.

In October 2020, Shankle pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a felon. He is currently in federal custody. Upon designation of a federal facility, he will be transferred to the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons.

Stetzer commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Wadesboro Police Department, and the Monroe Police Department for their investigation of the case. Acting U.S. Attorney Stetzer also thanked Anson County District Attorney Reece Saunders for his office’s coordination and assistance throughout the case.

Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Spaugh, of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte prosecuted the case.

Records with the North Carolina Department of Public Safety show that Shankle has previously served time in prison for felony robbery with a dangerous weapon and possession of drug paraphernalia. His most recent run-in with the law was in summer 2014 when he was convicted of one felony count each of malicious conduct by a prisoner and possession of a firearm by a felon, for which he was sentence to probation.