A dispute between two rival funeral companies in Washington, D.C., turned deadly this month when authorities say one man fatally shot another during the funeral of a 10-year-old girl, herself the victim of gun violence. Wilson Chavis, 48, allegedly shot and killed 30-year-old Ronald Steven Banks at a cemetery in Suitland, Maryland, NBC News reported. Banks was serving as a pallbearer for 10-year-old Arianna Davis at a June 6 funeral Chavis's company organized.
NBC Washington reported that the funeral was for 10-year-old Arianna Davis, who was killed in a hail of bullets while riding in a car with her family in northeast D.C. on Mother's Day. Police say there are no suspects in the case. At the funeral, Chavis allegedly confronted two unidentified people affiliated with another funeral company, Freeman Funeral Services, "with which Chavis has a long-standing business dispute" as the burial was about to begin around 1:20 p.m., the Prince George's County Police Department said.
"Several funeral attendees became upset with Chavis and confronted him over his behavior," the police department said in a Facebook post, adding that Chavis then allegedly fired two shots. Banks, who was not affiliated with either funeral company, was fatally wounded, while another woman suffered a non-life-threatening graze wound.
Arianna's mother, Antionette Belk, told NBC Washington that Banks was a close family friend who intervened when Chavis started getting upset. She said Chavis yelled, "I own this body!" and disrespected the preacher—who she said was Arianna's uncle—during the confrontation. Belk said the argument between Chavis and the rival funeral home had nothing to do with her family.
"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 in the ground, and another incident happened. This is so traumatizing to me, my children, my whole family. It's trauma after trauma," she told the news outlet.
Chavis then allegedly fled in his car before an officer with the Morningside Police Department pulled him over on a traffic stop and took him into custody, the Prince George's County Police Department said. Chavis faces charges of first- and second-degree murder, attempted first- and second-degree murder and related counts, Prince George County police said. He could face up to life in prison if convicted.
"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," Prince George's County State's Attorney Aisha N. Braveboy said at a news conference after a court hearing last Friday. Antoini Jones, an attorney for Chavis, said his client acted in self-defense. He said that after the initial confrontation, a person went to their car—"an indication they are going to retrieve something"—and Chavis was surrounded when he fired his gun, the Washington Post reported. "My client, in our opinion, was under attack," said Jones.
Prince George's County prosecutor William Porter said in court last Friday that Chavis had "followed through" with threats he had made against Freeman Funeral Services. The company applied for a protective order against Chavis on May 14. In court documents, Glenda Freeman of Freeman Funeral Services alleged that Chavis told Freeman staffers he had an embalming table waiting for them and would "kill all of us," the Washington Post reported. The documents don't describe what led to the threats, saying only that they stemmed "from an event that happened two years ago."
