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Inset: Michael Devon Webb (Oakland County Sheriff’s Office). Background: Rachel Wooten (GoFundMe).
A 21-year-old man in Michigan has been arrested for allegedly killing his fiancee, shooting her in the neck and claiming his firearm accidentally discharged while he was cleaning it. Michael Devon Webb was taken into custody last week and charged with one count of first-degree murder and using a firearm in the commission of a felony in the slaying of 23-year-old Rachel Renee Wooten, authorities announced.
According to a news release from the Oakland Sheriff’s Office, deputies at about 4 p.m. on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, responded to the Highland Township home in the 200 block of Maple Drive, which is about 40 miles northwest of Detroit, Michigan, regarding a reported shooting. Webb and Wooten lived in the home where the shooting is alleged to have occurred with their 6-month-old child.
The caller identified himself as Webb and allegedly told the emergency dispatcher that he “had shot his fiancee and himself,” per the release.
Upon arriving at the scene, first responders located Wooten, who appeared to be suffering from a gunshot wound to the neck “at very close range,” prosecutors said in a release. She was pronounced dead on the scene. The couple’s child was not harmed during the incident.
Police placed Webb under arrest at the residence. When speaking to police, Webb originally said of the shooting, “it was an accident” that happened “while cleaning his gun,” police wrote. However, the news release said that the evidence recovered from the residence “did not support” an accidental shooting being the cause of Wooten’s death.
The Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office said that Webb’s allegedly self-inflicted gunshot wound was “apparently from the same bullet” that killed his fiancee.
“Rachel Wooten was just 23 and a mother of an infant,” Prosecutor Karen McDonald said in a statement. “Her entire life was ahead of her, until it was ended in what appears to be a domestic violence tragedy. She won’t be there for her child or other loved ones in her life. I’m committed to bringing her killer to justice.”
Sheriff Michael Bouchard reiterated the prosecutor’s sentiments in a statement of his own.
“I am proud of our investigators and team that responded to a tragic death and unraveled a false offered narrative to hold an individual accountable,”
Following his arrest, Webb was booked into the Oakland County Jail. He appeared in court before Magistrate Judge Andra Richardson in 52-1 District Court in Novi, Michigan, for his arraignment on Friday, and was ordered to remain in detention without bond. He is currently scheduled to appear in court again for a probable cause hearing on April 30.
Under Michigan state law, first-degree murder is punishable by a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
A GoFundMe for started by Wooten’s sister said she was a “beautiful” sibling.
“Rachel was an amazing woman, devoted mother, and loving caretaker of her stepson as well,” the page reads. “She was also the best sissy in the entire world, my rock, and my best friend. Words cannot even begin to describe this tragedy and devastation.”
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