A Maryland daycare owner is behind bars after shooting her retired cop husband in the head in a swanky hotel room having just been told by some of her clients that he was molesting their children.
Shanteari Weems, 50, shot her husband James Weems Jr., 57, on Thursday in their room at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington DC.
The couple from Baltimore were staying at the hotel for Weems to attend an event, when Shanteari received texts from parents of some of the children she teaches at Lil Kidz Kastle Daycare, claiming that he had molested their kids.
The couple argued in their room and Shanteari produced a gun, firing it at her husband of five years and wounding him.
He survived, as did she, and the pair were coaxed out of their room after a standoff with police.
Once inside the hotel room, police found notes he had scribbled in which she said: ‘d ‘I want him to face the world as scum’, ‘I hope he gets beat up in jail, and I’m [going to] paralyze you.’
In other notes, she wrote ‘I want these kids to get justice, and you gonna pay’ and ‘My only regret for me is that I didn’t put the bullet in your head.’
Now, police sources tell The Baltimore Banner that James Weems is due to be charged with child sex offenses.
The Baltimore Police Department could not confirm those reports, and he has not been arrested or charged.
However his wife is being held in DC on weapons offenses and domestic violence charges.
Daycare owner Shanteari Weems, 50, is shown being taken into custody on July 20 after shooting her husband in the head. She had just been told that he was molesting some of the kids in her daycare
Shanteari Weems, 50, is the owner of Lil Kidz Kastle in Owing Mills, Maryland
There is an ongoing public campaign for her to be freed.
A GoFundMe page set up to pay for her defense raised $3,000 before the website took it down, and people are now inundating the daycare’s Facebook page demanding for her to be released.
Her next court appearance is on Friday.
The husband is due to be charged with two counts of third-degree sex offense, three counts of second-degree assault and one count of displaying obscene material to a minor, according to local website The Baltimore Banner.
He is thought to have been attending the National Urban League Conference, which was hosting a two-day event at the hotel when the pair were staying there.
After retiring from the police, Weems worked as a private security guard.
A Baltimore PD spokesman told DailyMail.com on Tuesday: ‘James Weems, Jr. retired from the Baltimore Police Department in 2005.
‘He continued to work for the department as a contract specialist until 2008.’
The shooting occurred here at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington DC
The couple had been at the $400-a-night hotel in Washington DC for James, a retired cop, to attend an event
A GoFundMe page set up to pay for her defense raised $3,000 before the website took it down, and people are now inundating the daycare’s Facebook page demanding for her to be released. Her next court appearance is on Friday.
The daycare center is inside this multi-business building in Maryland
According to police, around 7:40 p.m. on July 21, a fire alarm went off in room 853 in the hotel. Weems said that when she made the accusations against her husband he made a move ‘toward’ her.
That’s when she says she took a gun from her purse and shot him.
When staff went to the room to investigate, they noticed blood on the wall. A member of staff then called police.
Responding officers were able to communicate with Weems through the door.
They asked to enter the room in order to check on the condition of her husband.
An hourlong standoff with a SWAT team ensued with Weems allegedly telling officers: ‘If you come in, I’m going to shoot myself’ and in reference to her husband: ‘F**k him, he’s a child molester.’
Her husband shouted to officers that he had been shot in the head and leg. Weems then told him: ‘Shut the f**k up, I will kill you.’
Eventually, officers stormed the hotel room and arrested Weems. They found a gun in her purse and another in the room’s safe.
It’s unclear if the gun was registered to the wife or her husband, and why she brought it with her.
There was a one-hour standoff with police inside the hotel, during which the woman told police how she wanted her husband to go to prison
The reports of the shooting prompted a massive police response to the scene
Her husband suffered non-life threatening injuries. The Washington Post reported that he retired from the Baltimore Police Department in 2005. Since then, he has been working as a private-security specialist.
According to his LinkedIn page, James Weems served as an infantryman in the US Marine Corps between 1983 and 1987 before joining the Baltimore Police Department in 1996.
Weems’ husband was attending an event at the Mandarin Hotel when he was shot, reports WUSA9.
The couple have been married for five years. They live in Baltimore. Weems told police she has reported to her husband to authorities.
In a notebook, the suspect had written: ‘I’m going to shoot [the victim],’ ‘I’m going to paralyze you,’ ‘I want [the victim] to face the world as scum,’ ‘I hope [the victim] to get beat up in jail,’ ‘I want these kids to get justice, and you gonna pay’ and ‘My only regret is that I didn’t put a bullet in your head.’
In another letter, Weems wrote an apology to her husband’s alleged victims whom she referred to as her ‘babies.’
Weems also said that she didn’t plan to kill her husband but that she had thoughts of self-harm. She also said that she does not normally handle guns.
The couple’s home in Randallstown, Maryland. They have been married for five years
Lil Kidz Kastle will be closed until the investigation is complete. On the daycare’s website, Weems is quoted as saying: ‘I build our kids for them to be better people.’
The page also says: ‘With a structured staff, love and good character, Mrs Weems leads the charge of the future generation at Kidz Kastle CDC!’
A GoFundMe page was set up for Weems and raised $3,000 before being removed. The goal of the page was $200,000.
Weems is facing charges of intent to kill, possession of an unregistered firearm, possession of unregistered ammunition and other gun offenses. She will have her first hearing on Friday. The daycare operator is remanded without bail.
Her lawyer, Tony Garcia, told the media on Monday: ‘We’re standing by our client. You know what I mean? Our client says she was defending herself, and we’re standing by it and we’re standing by her. And, we’ll be proceeding going forward in that vein.’
Activist group Harriet’s Wildest Dreams spokesperson Qiana Johnson led a group of Weems’ supporters outside of DC’s Superior Court on Monday.
Johnson told WUSA9: ‘She’s placed complaints to the proper authorities before… and her cries for help went unanswered. Our public, our government, did not keep her or the children safe.’
Supports of Weems have been using the hashtag ‘#FreeShanteari’ on social media.