Pro cornhole player, quadruple amputee arrested for murder : NPR
Dayton Webber, then 18, pictured at a baseball sport in 2016. In the years earlier than his arrest, he shared his expertise enjoying sports activities — and turning professional in one in every of them — as a quadruple amputee.
Kevin Sullivan/Digital First Media/Orange County Register by way of Getty Images
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Kevin Sullivan/Digital First Media/Orange County Register by way of Getty Images
An expert cornhole participant who’s a quadruple amputee has been arrested in reference to a deadly taking pictures.
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, DC—in response to the Charles County Sheriff’s Office.
The sheriff’s workplace said in a press release that passengers within the backseat noticed Webber shoot Bradrick Michael Wells, additionally 27, earlier than he pulled over and requested them “to help pull the victim out of the car.” They refused and left, at which level Webber “fled with the victim still in the car.” All of the passengers knew one another, authorities mentioned.
Nearly two hours later, a resident of Charlotte Hall, Md., about 14 miles away, known as police to report “a body in a yard,” the sheriff’s workplace mentioned. Responders recognized Wells and pronounced him useless 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 Department, which mentioned in a separate statement that one in every of his officers noticed Webber’s automobile at a fuel station and used surveillance footage to trace him down.
Webber was arrested at a neighborhood hospital, the place authorities mentioned he was “seeking treatment for a medical issue.” He was charged as a fugitive from justice, and public data 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 will likely be charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder and “other related charges.”
Jail superintendent Col. Martin Kumer advised NPR in an e-mail that the courtroom “did not address extradition” at its Tuesday morning listening to. He mentioned Webber’s subsequent scheduled courtroom date is “sometime in April,” although his lawyer might doubtlessly ask for one even sooner.
Dayton Webber was booked right into a Virginia jail on Monday.
Charles County Sheriff’s Office
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Charles County Sheriff’s Office
NPR has reached out to Webber’s lawyer and Albemarle County courtroom for remark however didn’t hear again in time for publication. The Charles County State’s Attorney’s workplace declined to remark.
Authorities say the murder investigation is ongoing, and are asking anybody with related data to name or submit ideas on-line.
Webber’s path to professional cornhole
At 10 months previous, Webber was identified with a bacterial an infection, Streptococcus pneumoniaethat turned so aggressive he was given final rites.
“They had actually given me a 3% chance of living, and the only way that they were able to save me was by getting the infections out of my system,” he mentioned in a 2024 ESPN video. “They had to amputate my arms and legs to keep me alive.”
That did not cease Webber from pursuing and excelling at sports activities, together with soccer and wrestling. In truth, 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 using my strength and being fit.”
“Sometimes when I watch my teammates in certain situations I wish I had hands, but I just try to do things my own way,” added the rising seventh grader, who mentioned he needed to be a priest or a Secret Service agent someday.
Over the years, Webber realized the way to write, fish and hunt. Videos on a YouTube account believed to belong to Webber present him firing weapons utilizing his higher arms. He wrote in a 2023 Today piece that he “even taught myself how to drive by racing go-karts.”
In the piece, Webber mentioned he began enjoying cornhole — the garden sport through which gamers throw bean luggage at a goal on a sloped picket board — within the yard with pals, then weekly at his native American Legion.
“I loved it so much, I never missed a Friday,” he wrote.
Webber was topped Maryland’s finest cornhole participant in 2020. I’ve defined within the piece he wrote for Today that he would not put on his prosthetics in competitors as a result of they do not enable the identical stage of sensitivity or management, and he has tailored his approach to throw the baggage by their corners for extra leverage. He mentioned that whereas others usually underestimate him, he hoped his expertise would encourage folks to “take chances and pursue their dreams” too.
Webber turned professional within the 2021-2022 seasonchanging 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.
The league confirmed to NPR on Tuesday that Webber has not been an lively participant since late 2024. Nonetheless, it issued a statement acknowledging the allegations and declining to touch upon them whereas proceedings are ongoing.
“This is an extremely serious matter and our thoughts are with all those impacted, including the family and loved ones of Bradrick Michael Wells,” he mentioned.
