By Jesse Angelino
SCHENECTADY — During the early evening hours on Thursday, April 17th 2025, the city of Schenectady Police Department received a call from a resident of the “Reserve at Towpath Trail” apartment complex located at 540 Northend Drive on Schenectady’s northern edge near the Mohawk River. The caller contacted the police, concerned after they heard shouting and screaming coming from a nearby housing unit. A dispute between their neighbor, 44 year old Donald Rickson and his wife Stefanie. The couple, according to an eyewitness, had been experiencing marital troubles.
“He was due to leave for work, he said that he would leave and she could come up to the apartment and get their son” begins Tannersville resident Rachel Byrne who had gone with her friend Stefanie to Don’s apartment that day she says “out of concern”.
“The way he was acting was scaring her” Rachel continues. “Stefanie asked me to come with her and wait in the car while she went up to get their son, in case Don trapped her in an argument”.
But upon hearing screaming coming from inside the apartment, Rachel rushed to help her friend. “I got out of the car and ran up to the apartment building door which had a code to enter” says Rachel. “I started screaming and pounding on the glass until the next door neighbor let me in”.
“I was relieved to see that their son was locked out of the apartment and was in the hallway” Rachel continues. It was at this time, Rachel says, that she asked for help from the neighbor who had given her access into the building, if he could take the son to his apartment while she tried to enter Don’s unit. “I heard terrifying screams and pleading” she describes from outside of the apartment. “I yelled “Please open the door, then I noticed the fire extinguisher on the wall so I broke the glass, took it out, and started slamming it against the wood of the door”.
Rachel mentions that “the wood was too dense to break all the way through, so I slammed it onto the deadbolt and the door knob several times” while inside she said she could hear Don yelling back at her “If you don’t stop, I am going to shoot you”.
Rachel concludes her personal account at the scene by explaining “I kept slamming the extinguisher against the bolt and the doorknob until the bolt was hanging loose”.
At this time, City of Schenectady Police arrived at the site at 7:19 PM responding to the neighbors call from earlier and hastily climbing the stairs in the building following the sounds of two gunshots. According to Rachel’s testimony, the police were able to kick down the now heavily compromised door with ease allowing entry into the unit. “Stefanie exited the apartment with a bullet wound to her wrist and shoulder” she goes on, but thankfully alive.
Moments later, Donald would tragically take his own life using the firearm, before police could stop him and was pronounced dead on site.
“I worried that I may have made the situation worse by trying to break down the door” adds Rachel. “That he may have calmed down, that he may have changed his mind, that he may still be alive”. “The city of Schenectady Police told me that if not for the fire extinguisher adding unexpected chaos to the plan, and for showing up with her when he expected her to be alone, she (Stefanie) would not be alive”.
“I don’t know if things could have gone differently, it is always a tragedy to lose a life” finishes
Rachel. “In a situation that feels so life altering and horrible, you can only be grateful that a life was spared, and that a teenager still has his mother”.
Anyone wishing to donate funding to help Stefani and her son Jakob at this time are encouraged to do so on their webpage
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-stefanie-heal-and-support-jakob
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