Brother charged in 8-year-old’s shooting

Teen accused of murder in Dylan King’s December death

The older brother of an 8-year-old boy who was fatally shot at the end of December is accused of killing him, charging documents show.

Baltimore Police say in charging documents that Devin Wilson, 18, was home alone Dec. 30 watching four younger siblings, including 8-year-old Dylan King. At some point that evening, he called his mother, telling her to come home because Dylan had been shot. He reportedly later told a family member that Dylan had accidentally shot himself.

Police responded to the report of a shooting shortly after 5 p.m., and when they arrived at the scene, a next-door neighbor was performing CPR on Dylan. He was rushed to the hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

Police found Wilson in a back bedroom of the West Baltimore home with a shotgun. He was taken into custody and taken for a psychiatric evaluation, charging documents said. They don’t detail the results of that evaluation.

Wilson is charged with first- and second-degree murder, as well as assault. Online court records do not list a defense attorney. Wilson is scheduled to appear in court Feb. 15 for a preliminary hearing.

Dylan, a third grade student at Matthew A. Henson Elementary School, was remembered as a “ball of life” and “everybody’s best friend” at a funeral service Friday. Some mourners donned his favorite color, red, in his memory. Dylan, or “Dill Pickle,” also was wearing red and had a red coffin, covered in photos of him.

Charging documents say the Medical Examiner’s Office classified the death as a homicide caused by a single shotgun wound.

Police also wrote in the charging documents that the “shot pattern” of the room where Dylan was found suggested the shot was fired from a further distance than a self-inflicted gunshot wound involving a shotgun would ordinarily be.

Wilson’s family said he’d acquired the shotgun from someone following his 18th birthday earlier in December when he either sold or traded a puppy for it, police said. The shotgun was likely legal as he was 18 years old and had no known criminal background, police said. Shotguns are not regulated firearms, they added.

Wilson had expressed an interest recently in shooting guns, and his family had taken him to an indoor gun range for his birthday, the charging documents said.

Police recovered a shotgun, a spent shell, a live 12-gauge cartridge, an owner’s manual and swabs of blood from Wilson’s room. A blanket with a hole and swabs of blood were recovered from a front bedroom.

Family members and family friends said Dylan loved playing sports and video games, and recently had started playing recreation basketball in Baltimore County. A framed basketball jersey was next to his coffin.

“Dylan had an old soul,” the funeral program said. “He could read you your rights. You would have thought he was the oldest of everybody because he took charge of everything. Dylan loved to protect all his siblings including the many cousins that Dylan considered his bonus sisters and brothers.”