SEATTLE — A Seattle woman is charged with murder and assault after she was accused of shooting and killing a 20-year-old mother in a downtown Seattle alley.
The King County Prosecutor’s Office said Rickesha Overton, 33, is charged with first-degree murder and second-degree assault.
Her bail has been set at $5,000,000.
KIRO 7 News requested court documents about the case.
Detectives said witnesses heard three gunshots on the 3rd floor of the Ellis Court Apartments, located at 2510 Western Avenue in Seattle, Sunday at about 1:13 a.m.
Witnesses said they saw two women fighting.
After combing through security footage and evidence, investigators said Overton marched 20-year-old Alisia DeCoteau down a flight of stairs and into an alley behind the apartment building while pointing a gun at her.
Overton was heard telling DeCoteau, “I’ll blow your mouth. Say I won’t. Say I won’t.”
Police said the suspect shoved the victim to the ground and goes back inside the building briefly.
Overton comes back outside and shoots DeCoteau twice – once at the victim’s head, police said.
The suspect continued to pull the trigger, but the gun ran out of ammunition, detectives said.
As the victim was lying the ground, Overton was heard saying, “you dead b----. B---- you dead.”
Overton was seen kicking DeCoteau on the ground at least five times, detectives said.
A nearby crowd yelled, “Stop kicking him, back up!”
Cell phone footage from witnesses captured the suspect pointing a gun at the crowd and yelling, “I’ll blow your mother f------ brains out,” the document wrote.
Police found Overton, wearing a green jacket, white dress and pink shoes, running with a handgun near the southeast corner of Western Avenue and Vine Street, police said, and noticed the gun’s magazine was empty.
The suspect initially told officers, “She came into my apartment. It was self-defense. I had to shoot her.”
But later told police, “She’s not even dead.”
“I don’t care if you give me life. I just want to go to Alisia’s funeral,” Overton added.
Officers found Alisia’s body in the alley outside of the apartment building’s back door.
KIRO 7 News also learned from court documents that this was not the first time Overton allegedly attacked DeCoteau.
Police said they were called to the same apartment building on January 1 at about 2:35 p.m. and arrested Overton for assaulting DeCoteau.
KIRO 7 News spoke with Jessica Ceja, the victim’s older sister.
“I knew I lost somebody I loved so much.” She said, “We’re hurt. She was our youngest sibling. She was only 20 years old. That was my baby sister. I didn’t expect her to ever die this way.”
“She was always such a good person. Loved her friends and family and impacted everybody she was around in a good way. I can’t imagine somebody wanting to hurt her like that,” Ceja told KIRO 7 News.
Ceja said she learned about her little sister’s shooting death after she had received a call from her aunt.
“It’s been so hard to even imagine this grown woman killing my younger sister. You know what I mean. It wasn’t just a little girl off the streets fighting my sister her age. It was a grown woman knowing what she was doing,” she shared.
“The first thought that came to my head was that her (DeCoteau) daughter was never going to see her again,” she added.
DeCoteau leaves behind a one-year-old daughter, Mariah, who is now being cared for by Ceja.
“I have to explain that the way this lady took her mom’s life. I’m not ready for that conversation, but I know it’s going to come one day,” she said.
“Alisia., I’m always here for you. Just because you left me, I didn’t leave you. Don’t ever worry about your baby because I’m going to take care of her the best I can. And she’ll have everything she needs from love to everything. And I will always show her who her mommy was,” she added.
We also spoke with Nina Virrueta, DeCoteau’s older cousin.
“We never had a death in the family like this. Something that happened in this manner,” Virrueta shared. Alisia was loved by everybody. Everybody loved being around Alisia. She brightened up everything when she walked in. She was just a happy outgoing person.”
“I was hurt because I’m really close to Jessica and I’m close with Alisia,” she said. “My anxiety was super high thinking how she felt in the moment with everything happening.”
KIRO 7 News asked both family members about the suspect.
“She needs to pay for what she did. She needs to be in jail. Whatever maximum they can give her because it’s not fair she gets to take somebody’s life and keep her life. And keep going like that. She took somebody’ else’s life. She still has a life. She still has a family, but we’re missing a part of ours,” Virrueta responded.
“She doesn’t ever deserve to ever be released, especially after being released in January for hurting my sister,” Ceja said
Loved ones created a GoFundMe to help with DeCoteau’s funeral expenses. If you’d like to help, please click here.
Court documents did not describe the relationship between Overton and DeCoteau.
Family members also told KIRO 7 News they were unsure about their relationship.
After looking online, KIRO 7 News discovered both the victim and the suspect were friends on Facebook. We confirmed both accounts with the family to validate.
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