'Public Execution' Suspect Had 'Misguided Belief' Woman, 25, Was to Blame For His Brother's Death: Authorities
Esther Wolfe was shot and killed in Rapid City, S.D., on Feb. 21
A young woman was shot and killed in South Dakota in what authorities are calling a “public execution.”
Esther Wolfe, 25, was shot and killed in Rapids City on Feb. 21, the Pennington County State’s Attorney’s Office says. Two suspects have since been arrested in connection with the murder.
Ezekiel Mayweather was charged with aiding and abetting a murder, the state’s attorney’s office says. Prosecutors allege that he organized the killing and provided the gun used in the shooting of Wolfe.
The alleged shooter, Arkadius Wright, was arrested a week after the shooting and was charged with first-degree murder, prosecutors say.
Authorities claim that Mayweather organized the shooting because of a “misguided belief” that Wolfe was responsible for the death of his brother, who died in 2019. KOTA reported that police ruled that Mayweather’s brother, Michael Mayweather, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Wolfe, notably, was killed on Michael's birthday, prosecutors say.
A spokesperson for the county court clerk’s office says both Mayweather and Wright are set to be arraigned next week. The Law Office of the Pennington County Public Defender could not immediately be reached for comment.
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KELO reported that Wolfe was a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.
“She was a great aunt, a great sister,” her sister Justine Wolfe told the outlet. “If you knew Esther, you were lucky.”
The station also spoke to Wolfe’s other sister, Krystal Eagle Bull, who said her sister will be missed.
“My heart aches,” Eagle Bull told KELO. “I never felt a heartache like this."
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