Women taking into custody after shooting her mother, police say

12/11/2022

Hillsborough, NC – Deputies with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office responded to a shooting call on Spruce Pine Trail just after midnight this morning. Spruce Pine Trail is in the eastern edge of Orange County.

Once on scene, they located a woman with a single gunshot wound to the forehead. EMS transported the victim, 75-year-old Cheryl Garner Medlin, to Duke Hospital with a severe injury.

After interviewing all people on scene, deputies arrested Medlin’s daughter, Paula Lee Decoteau, 51, took her before a magistrate, and then placed her in the custody of officers at the Orange County Detention Center.

Two other occupants in a different part of the house overheard an argument between Decoteau and Medlin, followed by a single gunshot, but they did not observe the shooting.

They reported that after the gunshot, Decoteau came into the room where they were.

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She took their phones and did not allow them to leave the room while she decided what to do next. After 15 – 30 minutes, she allowed them to leave to call 911.

On the way out of the room, one of them was able to secure the weapon, a 22-caliber rifle, until deputies arrived.

Decoteau is charged with Assault with a Deadly Weapon with Intent to Kill Inflicting Serious Injury, second-degree kidnapping (two counts), and Assault on a Government official.

Decoteau kicked the arresting deputy in the chest, resulting in the third charge. She is under a $500,000.00 bond.

Anyone who heard or saw anything is asked to call her at (919) 245-2907.