Pro cornhole player, quadruple amputee arrested for murder : NPR
Dayton Webber, then 18, photographed at a baseball game in 2016. In the years before his arrest, he shared his experience playing sports – and becoming a professional in one – as a quadruple amputee.
Kevin Sullivan/Digital First Media/Orange County Register via Getty Images
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Kevin Sullivan/Digital First Media/Orange County Register via Getty Images
A quadruple amputee professional cornhole player has been arrested in connection with a fatal shooting.
Dayton Webber, 27, is accused of killing a man in the front seat of his car during an argument Sunday in his hometown of La Plata, Maryland, about 30 miles south of Washington, D.C., according to the Charles County Sheriff’s Office.
The sheriff’s office said in a news release that passengers in the back seat saw Webber shoot Bradrick Michael Wells, also 27, before he stopped and asked them to “help get the victim out of the car.” They refused and left, after which Webber “flew off with the victim still in the car.” All the passengers knew each other, authorities said.
Nearly two hours later, a resident of Charlotte Hall, Maryland, about 14 miles away, called police to report “a body in a yard,” the sheriff’s office said. Responders identified Wells and pronounced him dead at the scene.
Detectives found Webber’s car more than 100 miles away in Charlottesville, Virginia, and obtained a warrant for his arrest. They were aided in their search by the Albemarle County Police Department in Virginia, which said in a separate statement that one of its officers spotted Webber’s vehicle at a gas station and used surveillance footage to track him down.
Webber was arrested at a local hospital, where authorities said he was “seeking treatment for a medical issue.” He was charged as a fugitive and public records show he was booked Monday into the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail.
The sheriff’s office says Webber is awaiting extradition to Maryland, where he will be charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder and “other related charges.”
Prison Superintendent Col. Martin Kumer told NPR in an email that the court “did not address extradition” during its hearing Tuesday morning. He said Webber’s next scheduled court date is “sometime in April,” although his attorney could potentially request one even earlier.
Dayton Webber was booked into a Virginia prison Monday.
Charles County Sheriff’s Office
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Charles County Sheriff’s Office
NPR reached out to Webber’s attorney and the Albemarle County Court for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication. The Charles County State’s Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
Authorities say the investigation into the murder is ongoing and are asking anyone with relevant information to call or submit information online.
Webber’s path to professional cornhole
At 10 months old, Webber was diagnosed with a bacterial infection, Streptococcus pneumoniaewho became so aggressive that he received the last rites.
“They had actually given me a 3 percent chance of living, and the only way they could save me was to clear the infections out of my system,” he said in a 2024 ESPN video. “They had to amputate my arms and legs to keep me alive.”
This did not stop Webber from participating and excelling in sports, including football and wrestling. In fact, ESPN featured him in 2010, after the 12-year-old finished fourth in his weight class in the Southern Maryland Junior Wrestling League.
Webber said at the time that it was his favorite sport, adding: “I like using my strength and being fit.”
“Sometimes when I look at my teammates in certain situations, I wish I had hands, but I just try to do things my way,” added the seventh grader, who said he wants to one day be a priest or a Secret Service agent.
Over the years, Webber learned to write, fish and hunt. Videos on a YouTube account believed to belong to Webber show him firing guns using his upper arms. He wrote in a 2023 Today piece according to which he “even learned to drive by racing karts”.
In the article, Webber said he began playing cornhole — the lawn game in which players throw bean bags at a target on a slanted wooden board — in the backyard with friends, then weekly at his local American Legion.
“I loved it so much, I never missed a Friday,” he wrote.
Webber was crowned Maryland’s best cornhole player in 2020. He explained in the article for which he wrote Today that he doesn’t wear his prosthetics in competition because they don’t allow the same level of sensitivity or control, and has adapted his technique to throw bags from the corners for more leverage. He said that although others often underestimate him, he hopes his experience inspires people to “take risks and follow their dreams.”
Webber turned professional in the 2021-2022 season, becoming the first quadruple amputee in American Cornhole League history. The governing body, founded in 2015, organizes tournaments broadcast on ESPN and CBS Sports.
The league confirmed to NPR on Tuesday that Webber has not been an active participant since late 2024. Nonetheless, it released a statement acknowledging the allegations and declining to comment on them while the proceedings are ongoing.
“This is an extremely serious matter and our hearts go out to everyone affected, including the family and loved ones of Bradrick Michael Wells,” he said.
