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Suspect Arrested In 2008 Halloween Slaying of Teen

When D’Angelo Saloy walked out of the Washington Corrections Center in Shelton this morning—after serving a year for unlawful possession of an AK-47, and assaulting an officer—detectives were waiting to put him right back in handcuffs.

Detectives arrested and booked Saloy, 20, for the murder of Quincy Coleman, who was fatally shot outside of Garfield High School in 2008 on Halloween night.

Saloy’s arrest came after an arduous four year investigation, driven by a slow trickle of information from witnesses about Coleman’s murder, polygraphs of possible suspects, searches by police divers, and surveillance, which captured Saloy urinating on a memorial for Coleman.

Coleman’s violent death was one of several in 2008 attributed to an ongoing feud between south end and Central District gangs, which ultimately led to the city’s Youth Violence Prevention Initiative.

Around 9:30 pm on Halloween night, Coleman and a group of his friends were standing behind Garfield, near the school’s baseball field, when a silver Ford Taurus sped down 25th Avenue and pulled up near the group.

Saloy opened fire from the back seat of the car, striking Coleman twice in the back and one of Coleman’s friends in the wrist and abdomen.

Coleman collapsed in a stairwell behind Garfield and died at the scene. His friend was taken to Harborview, and survived the shooting.

Over the next four years, Saloy admitted to several people—who later told police—he had shot Coleman in a rage over the death of a friend, Pierre Lapointe, who was shot and killed near Rainier and Graham in August 2008.

Coleman and the other man wounded in the shooting were both members of Central District gangs, while Saloy and LaPointe were members of the Down With the Crew gang from the south end.

Saloy—who took on the street name “Killa Casper” after Coleman’s death—also shared details about the shooting with friends, down to what caliber guns were used that night, and how he had ditched the guns at Mt. Baker Beach Park. Police divers later found four guns in the lake near the park, one of which matched the type of weapon used to kill Coleman.

During the investigation into Coleman’s death, police learned Saloy had made a visit to the site of the shooting, where he stopped to urinate on a memorial for Coleman outside of the school.

Saloy is being held at the King County Jail for investigation of homicide.