Nine months after a 1-year-old was killed after he got his hands on an unsecured gun, police have arrested the boy’s father.
D.C. police said that JD Wheeler, 23, of Northeast, was arrested by the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force on Tuesday.
According to investigators, back on Nov. 23, 2021, officers were sent to the 2300 block of Chester Street in Southeast after calls about a shooting. Police found the boy, Legend Wheeler, unconscious and unresponsive. Police said he had “an apparent accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound.” First responders were unable to save him.
According to police, the gun belonged to the boy’s father.
In the days following the shooting, police Chief Robert Contee expressed frustration with the boy’s family members, who at the time he said sought legal counsel instead of sharing with police what happened. Contee didn’t say at the time which family members he was referring to.
Wheeler is charged with second-degree murder.
