Alisia DeCoteau (GoFundMe) and police on the scene where Rickesha Overton allegedly shot and killed Alisia DeCoteau (SPD)
A 33-year-old woman in Washington state has been arrested for the coldblooded execution of one of her friends, allegedly leading the other woman into a back alley at gunpoint and repeatedly taunting her before shooting her multiple times.
Rickesha D. Overton was taken into custody on Sunday and charged with one count of first-degree premeditated murder with a firearm and second-degree assault with a deadly weapon in the slaying of Alisia DeCoteau, authorities announced.
According to a news release from the Seattle Police Department, officers at about 1:10 a.m. responded to an emergency call regarding shots being fired inside of a building in the 2500 block of Western Avenue. Upon arriving at the scene, first responders said they found a female victim in her 20s or 30s suffering from what appeared to be multiple gunshot wounds in the alleyway between Wall St. and Vine.
Emergency medical personnel attempted lifesaving measures on the victim, later identified as DeCoteau, but were unable to resuscitate her. She was pronounced dead on the scene.
Investigators quickly identified the suspected shooter as Overton, who was located running from the scene and taken into custody. Police said she was carrying a handgun with an empty magazine when apprehended.
An excerpt from the charging documents released by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office provided additional details about what happened in the last moments of the victim’s life, which investigators learned by obtaining security footage of the shooting.
The footage allegedly showed Overton “holding the victim at gun point as she marches the victim down the stairs” of the apartment complex and to the building’s back door, which leads into the alley way. After forcing the victim out the back door, Overton allegedly threw DeCoteau to the ground. Overton initially goes back inside of the building before apparently changing her mind.
“Internal stairway video captures the precise moment in which the defendant, still armed with a firearm, stops halfway up the stairs and changes course to head directly back through the door in which she just came, back to where she left the victim,” the charging document states. “Standing over the victim the defendant taunts her, stating ‘say I won’t,’ in essence daring the victim to question whether the defendant will in fact use very gun she’s been holding over the victim against her. It’s at this moment that the defendant shoots the victim multiple times, aiming the final shot into the back of the victim’s head.”
In court documents obtained by Seattle CBS affiliate KIRO, authorities said that just prior to the shooting, Overton could be heard yelling at the victim, “I’ll blow your mouth. Say I won’t. Say I won’t.”
After allegedly shooting the victim in the head, Overton reportedly continued to pull the trigger several times despite being out of ammunition. As DeCoteau was lying on the ground, Overton was allegedly heard yelling, “You dead b—-. B—-, you dead. She then proceeded to kick DeCoteau at least five times before a crowd of eyewitnesses intervened.
One of the witnesses began filming the grisly scene, which reportedly showed Overton pointing her handgun at the growing mass of people and screaming, “I’ll blow your mother f—— brains out.”
When police first encountered Overton, she reportedly claimed that she killed DeCoteau in self-defense.
“She came into my apartment,” Overton allegedly said. “It was self-defense. I had to shoot her.”
A short while later, Overton reportedly began changing her story.
While the nature of the relationship between Overton and DeCoteau was not specified by authorities, KIRO confirmed that the two were friends on Facebook.
According to a GoFundMe page setup for DeCoteau’s memorial, she was the mother to a baby who is now in the care of DeCoteau’s older sister.
