In the early evening of January 11, 2020, Tavon Cox, a 41-year-old Black or African American male from Baltimore, Maryland, was in the 700 block of 24th Street, Northeast in Washington, D.C., for what authorities believe was a marijuana transaction. At approximately 8:03 p.m., officers from the Fifth District of the Metropolitan Police Department were called to the scene for a reported shooting. Upon arrival, they discovered Cox inside a vehicle, suffering from gunshot wounds.
Before he lost consciousness, Cox was able to tell police that he was involved in a transaction with two individuals through the driver's side window when one of them pulled out a pistol and shot him in the head.
Emergency services transported Cox to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries. Despite medical efforts, he succumbed to his injuries the following day, on January 12, 2020, and was pronounced dead. The investigation into the homicide led detectives to identify a suspect in the fatal shooting.
On April 28, 2020, members of the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested 23-year-old Knico Wheaton of Southwest, D.C., in connection with Cox's death. Wheaton was subsequently charged with first-degree murder while armed. The investigation revealed that Wheaton had arranged to buy marijuana from Cox's cousin, and Cox had driven from Baltimore to make the delivery. When Wheaton and an accomplice met with Cox, they asked to smell the marijuana. As Cox allowed them to do so, one of the men retrieved a firearm and shot him.
In January 2022, Knico Wheaton pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter while armed. Though his defense attorney maintained that Wheaton was not the shooter, he accepted a plea agreement. On June 15, 2022, a judge sentenced Wheaton to 11 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release. Friends and family of Tavon Cox remembered him as a loving father and husband who was looking forward to moving his family to Georgia for a better life.
