EVERETT — Police are spreading photos of murder suspect Shawntea Hamilton far and wide in a growing search for her.
A judge issued a warrant on June 23 on Hamilton, a traveling nurse, on probable cause charges for the murder of Christopher Wilson in his north Everett apartment in early June.
Both owned guns and had a history of domestic disputes, police say.
She was still at large as of midday Thursday, June 29, Everett Police spokeswoman Officer Ora Hamel confirmed. The Tribune had an early press time Friday, June 30.
Hamilton, 29, and Wilson, 31, came to Washington state from Detroit and were dating.She is described as about five-foot-four-inches tall and 150 pounds.
Police aren’t clear what led to the shooting in the early morning of June 10 in Wilson’s apartment.
Someone in a neighboring apartment called 911 after hearing either a struggle or shuffling in the apartment upstairs, then three popping sounds and a thud hitting the floor.
Wilson was shot multiple times at close range, the autopsy stated. The person in the downstairs apartment found bullet damage to her ceiling.
Hamilton was seen on surveillance cameras arriving in the parking lot of Wilson’s apartment at around 3:30 a.m. where he greeted her. Less than 45 minutes later, cameras recorded her running to her car, a blue-gray Chevrolet Cobalt compact sedan she owns, and leaving the complex. The car has Michigan plates.
Hamilton is the registered owner of a 9 mm pistol; police found 9 mm shells near Wilson. Wilson’s .40-caliber pistol was still holstered to his leg when his body was found.
Earlier that night, the two had been at the Tulalip Casino. Police describe that the two had a dispute there, and video indicates Wilson took Hamilton’s car and parked it away from his apartment, possibly to conceal that he went home, prosecutors wrote. Hamilton called Wilson’s mother in Detroit telling her to get her son to bring back the car. Soon after he went and picked Hamilton up and brought her back to his apartment. Hamilton drove away with her car around 1 a.m. before she came back around 3:30 a.m. and ultimately shot him.
Prosecutors say Hamilton’s last employed traveling nurse assignment was in Spokane this spring.
Wilson’s funeral was held in Detroit on June 24, where he was buried, an obituary notice says.
