diff --git a/hbase-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/RegionServerAbortedException.java b/hbase-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/RegionServerAbortedException.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..ddc22703d66
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hbase-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/RegionServerAbortedException.java
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.hadoop.hbase.regionserver;
+
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.classification.InterfaceAudience;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.classification.InterfaceStability;
+
+/**
+ * Thrown by the region server when it is aborting.
+ */
+@SuppressWarnings("serial")
+@InterfaceAudience.Public
+@InterfaceStability.Evolving
+public class RegionServerAbortedException extends RegionServerStoppedException {
+  public RegionServerAbortedException(String s) {
+    super(s);
+  }
+}
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/AssignmentManager.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/AssignmentManager.java
index dcf08f44c09..3cf62735647 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/AssignmentManager.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/AssignmentManager.java
@@ -1869,14 +1869,14 @@ public class AssignmentManager extends ZooKeeperListener {
           t = ((RemoteException)t).unwrapRemoteException();
         }
         boolean logRetries = true;
-        if (t instanceof RegionServerAbortedException) {
-          // RS is aborting, we cannot offline the region since the region may need to do WAL
-          // recovery. Until we see  the RS expiration, we should retry.
+        if (t instanceof RegionServerAbortedException
+            || t instanceof RegionServerStoppedException) {
+          // RS is aborting or stopping, we cannot offline the region since the region may need
+          // to do WAL recovery. Until we see  the RS expiration, we should retry.
           sleepTime = 1 + conf.getInt(RpcClient.FAILED_SERVER_EXPIRY_KEY,
             RpcClient.FAILED_SERVER_EXPIRY_DEFAULT);
 
         } else if (t instanceof NotServingRegionException
-            || t instanceof RegionServerStoppedException
             || t instanceof ServerNotRunningYetException) {
           LOG.debug("Offline " + region.getRegionNameAsString()
             + ", it's not any more on " + server, t);
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/TestAssignmentManagerOnCluster.java b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/TestAssignmentManagerOnCluster.java
index b6822337362..29766b3315f 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/TestAssignmentManagerOnCluster.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/TestAssignmentManagerOnCluster.java
@@ -1028,12 +1028,6 @@ public class TestAssignmentManagerOnCluster {
       assertTrue(regionStates.isRegionOnline(hri));
       assertEquals(oldServerName, regionStates.getRegionServerOfRegion(hri));
 
-      // Try to unassign the dead region before SSH
-      am.unassign(hri, false);
-      // The region should be moved to offline since the server is dead
-      RegionState state = regionStates.getRegionState(hri);
-      assertTrue(state.isOffline());
-
       // Kill the hosting server, which doesn't have meta on it.
       cluster.killRegionServer(oldServerName);
       cluster.waitForRegionServerToStop(oldServerName, -1);
@@ -1159,12 +1153,6 @@ public class TestAssignmentManagerOnCluster {
       assertTrue(regionStates.isRegionOnline(hri));
       assertEquals(oldServerName, regionStates.getRegionServerOfRegion(hri));
 
-      // Try to unassign the dead region before SSH
-      am.unassign(hri, false);
-      // The region should be moved to offline since the server is dead
-      RegionState state = regionStates.getRegionState(hri);
-      assertTrue(state.isOffline());
-
       // Disable the table now.
       master.disableTable(hri.getTable());