SAN DIEGO: A 30-year-old U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer who fatally shot her boyfriend has not been charged and was released from jail Wednesday night as the case remains under review.
Melissa Hayes-Spencer told police she shot 30-year-old Rayshaun Cole in self defense as he was hitting her Saturday morning in their Chula Vista apartment.
She was arrested and booked into jail on a charge of murder. Her arraignment, expected to take place Wednesday, did not occur because the case “remains under investigation and review,” a spokesman for the District Attorney’s Office said.
Cole served six years in the Navy as an aviation electronics technician and pursued a modeling career after he got out of the military.
More recently, he worked as a real estate investor, flipping houses. He was the father of six children, ages 6 to 13, and an avid basketball player, said a former girlfriend, Kendra Thompson.
Thompson, who has a 7-year-old daughter with Cole, said she thought Cole had a good relationship with Hayes-Spencer, who she said also got along well with their daughter.
“He was a great guy, very funny, just loving,” said Thompson, who met Cole when they were both in the Navy and split up with him in 2010. “That’s why I don’t understand what happened.”
She said Cole tended to avoid confrontations. “He’s going to walk away. He’s not going to stand there and argue with you,” she said.
In his modeling profile, Cole called himself a “young country boy from a small town in Mississippi who believes in Southern hospitality” and described himself as “laid back and easy going.”
Police said Cole and Hayes-Spencer moved into the ground-floor apartment about a month ago. No one else was in the apartment at the time of the incident except for their dog.
Hayes-Spencer shot Cole with her department-issued weapon, Chula Vista police Lt. Fritz Reber said.
Hayes-Spencer has been with Customs and Border Protection for seven years and was assigned to the Otay Mesa cargo Port of Entry, authorities said.
She is also managing partner of QuickTime Property Investors, a real estate investment company that she ran with Cole, according to her LinkedIn page.
Because Hayes-Spencer was not charged within 72 hours of her arrest, under law she must be released from custody.
