Maryland funeral director found guilty shooting, killing pallbearer during funeral

Yahoo

15-02-2025

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, Md. () — A funeral director faces up to 65 years in prison after a Prince George's County jury found him guilty of second-degree murder on Thursday.
In June of 2023, 50-year-old Wilson Wesley Chavis went to the Washington National Cemetery in Suitland where the funeral home he owned – Compassion and Serenity – was conducting a service for 10-year-old Arianna Davis.
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Over Mother's Day weekend in 2023, Davis was shot by a stray bullet while in a car with her family in Washington, D.C. She died from her injuries on May 17, 2023.
During her funeral service on June 6, , 30-year-old Ronald Steven Banks. A second bullet grazed a 39-year-old woman.
Investigators said while the service was being conducted, Chavis went up to two people who were affiliated with a different funeral service company that he had a long-term business dispute with. They were there mourning Davis's death at the time.
Several attendees reportedly confronted him about his behavior. That's when officials said Chavis pulled out a gun and fired twice, hitting Banks and the woman.
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He ran from the cemetery and fled in his car before being pulled over by police.
'This 10-year-old girl was being buried that day. Everyone knew that, yet it wasn't important enough, yet that wasn't sacred enough not to carry out unnecessary beef,' State's Attorney Aisha Braveboy said during a press conference .
On Feb. 13, a jury found Chavis guilty of second-degree murder, use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence and reckless endangerment.
'When acts of violence occur at places that should be sacred like funeral homes and cemeteries, it's horrific,' Braveboy stated, in part, in a news release about his verdict. 'With this guilty verdict, Mr. Chavis will be held accountable for his reckless, callous actions.'
Chavis's sentencing is scheduled for July 11.
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