PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — A 44-year-old man arrested for the fatal shooting of Demonte Nettles Williams pleaded not guilty in court to murder charges.
Damar Rashay McCall is accused of killing 29-year-old Williams last Tuesday at a motel in the 8700 block of South Hosmer Street in Tacoma.
When police arrived at the scene, they found Williams, who had been shot in the chest, and began performing lifesaving measures. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to court records, the shooter had fled in a car witnesses described to investigators as an older Ford vehicle with tinted windows.
Surveillance video from the motel shows the suspect vehicle entering the parking lot, Williams approaching the vehicle and then an argument breaking out, according to court documents. The victim then struck or punched the driver and at one point turned away before returning to the vehicle again.
When the victim finally backed away toward the motel steps, he was seen on video falling to the ground while the suspect vehicle fled, court documents state.
After police talked to several witnesses and viewed hotel surveillance video, they identified McCall as the alleged gunman by tracking his vehicle plates. He was arrested by Lakewood police on Thursday.
When police questioned McCall, he told them that his vehicle had been stolen two weeks earlier and he had failed to file a report because “he thought the thief would bring it back,” according to court records. However, his vehicle was seen on surveillance video.
Police said McCall told them he had not been in the Hosmer area in approximately two weeks, although witnesses identified him.
McCall is being charged with two counts of second-degree murder and unlawful possession of a firearm in the second degree.
He is being held on $1 million bail.