A missing 3-year-old has been found safe after his father killed the boy’s mother and shot his sister, fleeing the scene as he left “blood curdling” screams behind.
Police found the young boy’s slain mother, Rayven Amuan Edwards, when they responded to a home in Washington, D.C. after they received a report of a shooting on Wednesday, February 11, the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement.
Edwards’ 10-year-old daughter was also shot at the scene. However, authorities confirmed that the girl survived with non-life-threatening physical injuries.
Stephon Marquis Jeter, who shared a 3-year-old son with 34-year-old Edwards, was quickly named the suspect in the shooting. Detectives determined that Jeter, 35, fled the scene with his son in a black pickup truck, according to the press release.
After police identified Jeter as the suspect, they shared photos of him and his vehicle with the public in an attempt to track him down.
Later that same day, officers with the Prince George’s County Police Department located Edwards’ vehicle in Maryland. They then began to pursue him before the vehicle crashed, according to the statement.
Police found Jeter inside the vehicle, where he was already dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His body was then taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
While Jeter was successfully found, the child was not in the car at the time of the crash. Authorities immediately sent out an AMBER alert, and the boy was located soon after at a family member’s home in Prince George’s County. Police added that the boy was physically unharmed following the incident.
Despite confirming the initial shooting, authorities did not share any specific information about the circumstances of the incident or if there was a possible motive.
Police also said it is currently unclear if Jeter and Edwards were married, how long they were together or if he lived at the home where the shooting took place.
However, Police Chief Jeffery Carroll confirmed to WTOP that it was a “domestic” dispute case that “spilled out from the apartment into the hallway.”
“This is one of the most tragic circumstances I’ve ever seen. An entire family is destroyed through the acts of an individual,” Carroll added. “Our hearts go out [to] the entire family that’s involved in this.”
Following the shooting and Jeter’s death, a neighbor spoke to WUSA9 about the terrifying aftermath of the situation.
“I heard screaming, which I thought was kids. Blood curdling,” the neighbor told the outlet. “A young girl was there with blood coming down from her arm saying her stepdad had just shot her mom and she thinks she’s dead.”
The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department concluded the press release by saying it wanted to “extend its gratitude to our partners at Prince George’s County Police Department for their assistance throughout this investigation.”
An investigation into the incident remains ongoing, according to WTOP.
The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department told Us Weekly that they have no additional information to share about the case as of time of publication.
