Dayton Webber, then 18, pictured at a baseball sport in 2016. Within the years earlier than his arrest, he shared his expertise enjoying sports activities — and turning professional in one in all them — as a quadruple amputee.
Kevin Sullivan/Digital First Media/Orange County Register through Getty Photographs
conceal caption
toggle caption
Kevin Sullivan/Digital First Media/Orange County Register through Getty Photographs
An expert cornhole participant who’s a quadruple amputee has been arrested in reference to a deadly capturing.
Dayton Webber, 27, is accused of killing a person within the entrance seat of his automobile throughout an argument on Sunday in his hometown of La Plata, Md.— about 30 miles south of Washington, D.C. — in response to the Charles County Sheriff’s Workplace.
The sheriff’s workplace mentioned in a press launch that passengers within the backseat noticed Webber shoot Bradrick Michael Wells, additionally 27, earlier than he pulled over and requested them “to assist pull the sufferer out of the automobile.” They refused and left, at which level Webber “fled with the sufferer nonetheless within the automobile.” All the passengers knew one another, authorities mentioned.
Almost two hours later, a resident of Charlotte Corridor, Md., about 14 miles away, known as police to report “a physique in a yard,” the sheriff’s workplace mentioned. Responders recognized Wells and pronounced him lifeless on the scene.
Detectives discovered Webber’s automobile over 100 miles away in Charlottesville, Va., and bought a warrant for his arrest. They had been helped of their search by Virginia’s Albemarle County Police Division, which mentioned in a separate assertion that one in all its officers noticed Webber’s automobile at a gasoline station and used surveillance footage to trace him down.
Webber was arrested at an area hospital, the place authorities mentioned he was “looking for remedy for a medical problem.” He was charged as a fugitive from justice, and public information present he was booked into the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail on Monday.
The sheriff’s workplace says Webber is awaiting extradition again to Maryland, the place he can be charged with first-degree homicide, second-degree homicide and “different associated fees.”
Jail superintendent Col. Martin Kumer advised NPR in an e-mail that the court docket “didn’t deal with extradition” at its Tuesday morning listening to. He mentioned Webber’s subsequent scheduled court docket date is “someday in April,” although his legal professional may doubtlessly ask for one even sooner.
Dayton Webber was booked right into a Virginia jail on Monday.
Charles County Sheriff’s Workplace
conceal caption
toggle caption
Charles County Sheriff’s Workplace
NPR has reached out to Webber’s legal professional, in addition to the Albemarle County court docket and the Charles County State’s Legal professional, for remark however didn’t hear again in time for publication.
Authorities say the homicide investigation is ongoing, and are asking anybody with related info to name or submit suggestions on-line.
Webber’s path to professional cornhole
At 10 months previous, Webber was recognized with a bacterial an infection, Streptococcus pneumoniae, that turned so aggressive he was given final rites.
“They’d truly given me a 3% likelihood of dwelling, and the one method that they had been capable of save me was by getting the infections out of my system,” he mentioned in a 2024 ESPN video. “They needed to amputate my legs and arms to maintain me alive.”
That did not cease Webber from pursuing and excelling at sports activities, together with soccer and wrestling. The truth is, ESPN profiled him in 2010, after the then-12-year-old completed fourth in his weight class within the Southern Maryland Junior Wrestling League.
Webber mentioned on the time that it was his favourite sport, including, “I like utilizing my power and being match.”
“Typically after I watch my teammates in sure conditions I want I had palms, however I simply attempt to do issues my very own method,” added the rising seventh grader, who mentioned he wished to be a priest or a Secret Service agent in the future.
Over time, Webber discovered write, fish and hunt. Movies on a YouTube account believed to belong to Webber present him firing weapons utilizing his higher arms. He wrote in a 2023 In the present day piece that he “even taught myself drive by racing go-karts.”
Within the piece, Webber mentioned he began enjoying cornhole — the garden sport through which gamers throw bean baggage at a goal on a sloped picket board — within the yard with pals, then weekly at his native American Legion.
“I cherished it a lot, I by no means missed a Friday,” he wrote.
Webber was topped Maryland’s finest cornhole participant in 2020. He defined within the piece he wrote for In the present day that he does not put on his prosthetics in competitors as a result of they do not permit the identical stage of sensitivity or management, and has tailored his method to throw the luggage by their corners for extra leverage. He mentioned that whereas others typically underestimate him, he hoped his expertise would encourage folks to “take possibilities and pursue their desires” too.
Webber turned professional within the 2021-2022 season, turning into the primary quadruple amputee within the historical past of the American Cornhole League. The governing physique, based in 2015, organizes tournaments which can be broadcast on ESPN and CBS Sports activities.
The league confirmed to NPR on Tuesday that Webber has not been an energetic participant since late 2024. Nonetheless, it issued a press release acknowledging the allegations and declining to touch upon them whereas proceedings are ongoing.
“That is an especially severe matter and our ideas are with all these impacted, together with the household and family members of Bradrick Michael Wells,” it mentioned.
