D’Vonne Pickett Jr. was a 31-year-old husband, father of three, and business owner in Seattle’s Central District. On the evening of October 19, 2022, he was fatally shot outside his shipping and mail services store, The Postman, after he and his wife, KeAnna, arrived at the business. As Pickett walked toward the front door a gunman fired from behind nearby bushes; his wife, still in the vehicle, witnessed the shooting, called 911, and he was taken to Harborview Medical Center in critical condition before dying of multiple gunshot wounds.

Police quickly identified a suspect, Ashton Christopher Lefall, described as a childhood friend of the victim. Pickett’s wife told investigators Lefall had been harassing and threatening the family for two years, and Pickett had filed a police report about harassment a month before the killing. Lefall was arrested the next day at a South Seattle apartment by police and SWAT while wearing clothing matching the shooter in surveillance footage.

Lefall was charged with first-degree murder in Pickett’s death and with multiple counts of first-degree assault, first-degree robbery, and unlawful possession of a firearm related to the other incidents; a judge ordered him held without bail. What details about the days before October 19 might help explain how this escalated to murder?