A Maryland court has found a funeral director guilty of murder after he started shooting at a child’s burial service. Wilson Wesley Chavis, 50, opened fire at the burial service for 10-year-old Arianna Davis, who was killed on Mother’s Day 2023, after getting caught in gang crossfire. Chavis apparently had a dispute with two people in attendance and took matters into his own hands.
The Prince George County Police Department reported in June 2023, that Chavis’ funeral home, Compassion and Serenity, was conducting Arianna’s funeral and burial when a dispute erupted. “While the burial service was preparing to get underway, Chavis confronted two people at the service. Those individuals are affiliated with a second funeral service company with which Chavis had a long-standing business dispute. Several funeral attendees became upset with Chavis and confronted him over his behavior. The preliminary investigation suggests Chavis pulled out a gun and fired two shots, striking both victims,” the statement read.
The now-convicted killer then fled the scene in his car, but police apprehended him a short time later. CBS News reported that Chavis struck 30-year-old pallbearer Ronald Banks and an unnamed woman. Banks died from his injuries, but the woman survived a graze wound.
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As news of the shooting circulated on social media, many condemned Chavis.
One wrote on the police department’s Facebook page: “Absolutely Unforgivable. Nothing and no one is Safe anymore. Lord have Mercy.”
This person agreed commenting, “If this is not crazy I don’t know what is. What a sick world we’re living in.”
“This poor family. I am so sorry. My God,” another comment reads.
The shooting caused additional heartache for Ariana’s family.
“The saddest part about that day was that the mother of Arianna Davis said she never got to see her daughter be buried and lowered into the ground,” Assistant State’s Attorney William Porter told WUSA. “Someone had to tell her where her daughter was buried later.”
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State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy called the shooting “unbelievable.”
“While one death is too many, what we do know is that the work that we have done in our office, along with all of our various law enforcement agencies that we partner with, we believe that we’re moving in the right direction and we’re getting results,” she said.
Loved ones created a GoFundMe for Arianna’s family following her death and raised more than $43,000.
Organizer Sylvia Soltis wrote, “We want to thank you once again for your generous contribution to honor Arriana Davis’s life. We are beyond grateful that more than 700 (!!) people have come together to lift the Belk-Davis family during this difficult time.”
Chavis will face sentencing on July 11, 2025, and could spend 65 years in prison.
