A funeral home owner was arrested on suspicion of murder after reportedly shooting and murdering a 30-year-old man and injuring a woman at a young girl’s burial earlier this week.
Officers from the Prince George’s County Police Department responded to a shooting complaint at a cemetery on the 4100 block of Suitland Road at 1:20 p.m. on Tuesday, June 6, and discovered Ronald Banks injured from an apparent gunshot wound and another victim with a graze wound. Banks was sent to a neighboring hospital, where he died shortly after arrival.
The funeral facility on Suitland Road is owned and operated by Wilson Chavis, 48, according to the police department. Chavis allegedly approached the victims as the funeral service was “preparing to get underway” and shot them. Banks was one of the pallbearers at the funeral.
Banks and the female victim, according to Prince George’s County Police, “are affiliated with a second funeral service company with which Chavis has a long-standing business dispute.”
READ ALSO: Maryland Man Died After Being Injured In A Shooting At A Cemetery
According to reports, some funeral attendants “became upset with Chavis and confronted him over his behavior.”
Following the incident, Chavis fled the scene in his vehicle. A Morningside Police Department officer, on the other hand, noticed him, conducted a traffic stop, and arrested him.
According to NBC Washington, Banks attended the funeral for Arianna Davis, a 10-year-old girl who was shot on the 3700 block of Hayes Street NE on Sunday, May 14, and died three days later. The Metropolitan Police Department is offering up to $45,000 in reward money for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the culprit or suspects.
Chavis is being held on first-degree murder, second-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, and other counts.
Antionette Belk, Davis’ mother, told NBC Washington, “I’m so traumatized that this happened at my daughter’s burial site. I didn’t even get to lay her down, even to put her on the ground, and another incident happened. This is so traumatizing to me, my children, and my whole family. It’s trauma after trauma.”