WASHINGTON: Charging documents made public Tuesday detail a brutal domestic killing in Southeast Washington in which a man is accused of fatally stabbing his mother.
D.C. Superior Court records identify the suspect as Ricardo Botts, 36, who is charged with murder and related offenses in the Sept. 21 attack on his mother, Pamela Botts, 66, at a home on 32nd Place SE.
According to a police affidavit, a relative told investigators that Pamela Botts was her daughter and that Ricardo Botts—her grandson—has a history of mental health problems.
The witness said she was upstairs when she heard Pamela and Ricardo Botts arguing. She went downstairs with the house phone and saw Ricardo standing over his mother, yelling at her. When she tried to call 911 from the dining room, he grabbed the phone. She then ran upstairs to retrieve her cell phone, but Ricardo followed and took it too before heading back downstairs.
Moments later, the witness heard what she described as “blows,” which she believed were Ricardo striking the wall—a behavior she said he sometimes used to avoid hitting her or Pamela.
When she returned to the first floor, the witness said, she saw Ricardo standing over Pamela in the living room. She retreated to her bedroom and shouted for help out of a window. She recalled trying to call for help again from the front door, but shut it when she saw someone approaching. That person turned out to be a D.C. police officer.
The witness told investigators that only she, Pamela, and Ricardo were inside the house during the argument and said she never saw Ricardo holding a knife or striking his mother.
Police said that when they arrested Ricardo Botts, he was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt or jacket and carrying a backpack. Inside the bag, officers found a white T-shirt with horizontal stripes stained with what appeared to be blood and a machete-style knife with a black handle in a black sheath. Detectives noted small spots of discoloration on the blade, though it was not immediately clear whether the marks were blood.
Detectives said that during questioning, Ricardo repeatedly challenged their identity and even their humanity. He asked whether the officers—or anyone else—were real and suggested at one point that a detective might be a robot.
When asked about his mother, investigators said, Ricardo replied that he did not know whether the woman was truly his mother or whether he had ever had a mother at all. He speculated that he might have been “made in a test tube” and “raised by God, in the streets, the dictionary, in the Koran, and Google.”
Investigators reported that Pamela Botts suffered at least three deep stab wounds to her face and head—including injuries to her forehead, left eye and cheek—as well as multiple facial fractures. The wounds caused significant bleeding inside her skull.
Pamela Botts died at a hospital on Sept. 23, becoming the city’s 109th homicide victim of the year.
