Second arrest made in fatal West Central shooting

A 20-year-old Spokane man was arrested late Friday in connection with a homicide in the West Central neighborhood.

Paul Ray Livingston has been charged with first-degree murder.

Spokane police believe Livingston helped kill a man in the alley behind 2307 W. Mallon Ave. earlier in the day. He allegedly loaded and then later hid the gun used to kill the victim.

The victim – 42-year-old Kevin Doyle – was allegedly shot twice in the head by one of two women who live at the house. Sheri M. Ramsey, 33, the woman authorities say pulled the trigger, may have been fighting with Doyle about rent and his accommodations, police said.

Doyle, who was recently released from prison, had been staying in the house for a few days.

“This crime had been planned, and steps were taken to get rid of the evidence,” Sgt. Joe Peterson said Saturday morning, standing in front of the house, just a block away from the Broadway Foods Market. “This was not a spontaneous event.”

The investigation began early Friday, after a Spokane police officer who was patrolling the neighborhood discovered Doyle in the alley about 6:45 a.m. He was taken to Deaconess Medical Center, where he soon died.

After searching for evidence and interviewing several people including Ramsey, her partner, Andre Ramsey, and their friends and neighbors, Peterson said this is what police learned:

Doyle was shot in the alley, but he had been with the couple and others inside the house. Other detectives indicated Friday night that they were drinking or using drugs.

The murder, Peterson said, allegedly took “several days of planning.”

Livingston, a friend of Sheri and Andre Ramsey who also lived at the house, allegedly loaded the small automatic handgun used to shoot the victim. He allegedly got rid of the gun, and Spokane police detectives later found it almost four miles away, in an area around Pacific Avenue and Ivory Street near the Spokane River. Detectives also recovered clothing that was involved in the homicide and had been hidden.

After questioning the couple and other witnesses, detectives told Livingston to come to the police station about 10 p.m. Friday. They interviewed him and then booked him into jail.

Several neighbors were shocked to learn of the homicide. Sheri and Andre Ramsey had lived in the house for the past few years with their four children and didn’t appear to have any problems, they said. “From what I could see, they always took good care of their kids,” said Linda Gartman, who lives across the street. “They seemed to be good neighbors.”

Police, however, described a vastly different scene after they searched the home. Peterson said his team of detectives saw three adults and several children – a few toddlers, all of them under 5 – living in the house along with a large Rottweiler, two small dogs and several cats.

Dishes were piled high in the kitchen, he said. Animal feces covered the floor.

Outside the two-story, light green house, a large rainbow flag hung from the porch, where tennis shoes, plastic sand buckets and clothing were strewn about. An empty Bud Light bottle lay on a glass patio table in the middle of the lawn. Parked outside the house was a rusty, old gray Toyota Tercel with a shattered windshield. Blue tarp, blankets and a few hangers filled the back while a “SpongeBob SquarePants” PlayStation game was between the torn-up seats up front.

The children are now staying with other family members, Peterson said. “The kids are the most devastating part” of these investigations, he said.

It was unclear Saturday if more arrests would be made.