A Maryland man who made history as the first quadruple amputee to compete in the professional televised American Cornhole League has been arrested on suspicion of shooting and killing a passenger in his car during an argument.

Dayton Webber – who became a champion cornhole player after losing his limbs and nearly dying from a bacterial infection in his infancy – faces murder charges in connection with the death of Bradrick Wells, authorities said on Monday.

According to a statement from investigators with the sheriff’s office of Charles county in suburban Baltimore, Webber was driving his car with Wells as his front-seat passenger at about 10.25pm on Sunday when the pair began arguing in front of others who were in the vehicle.

Webber, 27, then allegedly shot Wells to death, pulled over in the community of La Plata, and asked the other passengers to help him remove the dead man from the car, the sheriff’s office said. The others refused, got out of the car and fled the scene while Webber drove away with the body of Wells, also 27, the agency added.

Two people who purportedly saw the killing waved down police officers on patrol in that area and reported what had happened, setting off a search for Webber.

A couple of hours later, a resident of nearby Charlotte Hall, Maryland, called investigators to report a body in a yard.

Investigators determined the body was that of Wells, and the Charles county sheriff’s office said its deputies obtained a warrant to arrest Webber.

Authorities said they found Webber’s car in Charlottesville, Virginia, about 150 miles from where Wells’ body had been recovered. They reportedly tracked Webber down to a nearby hospital, where he had allegedly sought treatment for an unspecified medical issue.

The Albemarle county police department, whose jurisdiction includes the hospital, arrested Webber as a fugitive upon his discharge. Charles county sheriff’s deputies said they planned to book Webber with murder and other charges after his transfer to their custody.

Investigators said Webber, Wells and the other passengers were “all known to each other”. They did not elaborate on a possible motive for the victim’s killing.

Asked whether the sheriff’s office suspected Wells was shot dead with a gun that had equipment adapting it for use by someone without hands, an agency spokesperson said that was unknown. The spokesperson noted that sheriff’s office investigators had not immediately been able to serve a search warrant on the car where Wells was killed.

Webber’s arrest quickly gained widespread attention beyond Maryland, coming nearly 16 years after he first landed on the radar of ESPN, which broadcasts the American Cornhole League (ACL). In 2010, the sports outlet reported that Webber was a budding wrestler and football player despite not having hands or feet.

He was 10 months old when he had contracted a bacterial infection so severe that he was given the last rites, prayers offered to those whose deaths are evidently imminent. Wells survived after the amputations of his legs and lower arms – and a months-long hospital stay.

In 2023, Webber published an essay on NBC’s Today website in part about how he had helped teammates of his erase a 16-point deficit to win their state’s cornhole finals. He called it one of the biggest accomplishments of his career.

“I knew I could make it as a pro” at that moment, Webber wrote. “It felt amazing to go from underdog to winner.”

Cornhole involves trying to toss small bags filled with dried corn at targets made from an inclined wooden platform with a hole at its higher end.

Posts on a Facebook page under Webber’s name said he signed a pro cornhole contract in 2021, six years after he narrowed his focus to the game.

He was later drafted into the American Cornhole League (ACL), becoming its first quadruple amputee player. His page went on to report multiple tournament victories and other strong competition showings.

ESPN’s SC Featured, known for telling inspiring sports stories, profiled Webber in 2023. “Something I’ve been doing my whole life is overcoming things that people didn’t think I could,” Webber said on the segment, which at one point shows him celebrating by doing a kind of handstand as well as the dance known as the worm.

Asked what he wanted people to learn from his life, he said: “If you put your mind to it, anything is possible.

“The world won’t wait.”

ESPN SportsCenter also gave Webber a spot on one of its top 10 plays segments.

That appearance showed him making four consecutive cornhole shots into the hole for which he was aiming, including by banking his bag off an opposing one on the final attempt. The highlight ended with a SportsCenter anchor saying: “Dayton Webber – remember the name.”

A relative of Wells’s declined to comment.