Cheverly man charged with murder after fatal stabbing of mother

Prince George’s County police charged 54-year-old Darrick Alston with first- and second-degree murder after investigators say he fatally stabbed his mother, 80-year-old Brenda Wheeler, inside a Cheverly home on the 6200 block of Monroe Street. Officers were called there around 9:10 a.m. Tuesday, May 13, after a domestic dispute report and found Wheeler suffering from multiple stab wounds. She died at the scene, and Alston was taken into custody there and is being held without bond in the custody of the Prince George’s County Department of Corrections.

The killing lands hard in Cheverly, a small town of 6,170 people, where a domestic argument turned deadly inside a neighborhood home rather than on a public block. In a community that size, one violent death can echo across churches, schools, and block-by-block conversations about who knew what, when it escalated, and whether anyone saw warning signs before police arrived.

The case also fits into a larger public-safety picture in Prince George’s County, which finished 2024 with 114 homicides and continued a three-year stretch above 100 killings each year. County police say the crime figures they publish reflect reported offenses tracked through their reporting system, a reminder that the numbers behind headlines are built from individual calls for help, many of them made in moments of crisis inside a home.

For residents, the practical lesson is stark: when a domestic argument starts to turn physical, the safest response is to create distance, call 911, and get outside help before the situation becomes irreversible. Investigators are still asking anyone with information about the Cheverly killing to contact detectives or submit an anonymous tip through Prince George’s County Crime Solvers, as detectives continue to piece together how the dispute inside the Monroe Street house became a homicide.

State and federal agencies also continue to track domestic violence as a public-safety issue. Maryland Courts maintains monthly public domestic-violence reports based on statewide protective and peace order data, and the FBI released a Domestic Relationships and Violent Crimes special report on February 11, 2026. In cases like the one in Cheverly, those records and reports point to the same warning: family violence can move from argument to fatal injury in minutes, long before neighbors understand how serious it has become.