A D.C. man accused of fatally shooting a 3-year-old girl last summer pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of first-degree murder while armed and three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia.
Charles Rucker, 25, could face 35 years in prison for the shooting that occurred in the early-morning hours of July 5, 2025. Prosecutors allege he opened fire into a family car and struck Honesty Cheadle in the head.
She died from her injuries two days later, months before she was expected to begin prekindergarten.
President Donald Trump evoked her death when he declared a crime emergency in Washington and deployed National Guard troops in the city.
“Horrifically, last July Fourth weekend, a 3-year-old girl was shot in the head and killed while sitting in a car near the Capitol,” Trump said at a White House news conference on Aug. 11, 2025. “It’s becoming a situation of complete and total lawlessness,” he added.
After a night of enjoying fireworks and Fourth of July cookouts, Cheadle was being dropped off at her aunt’s apartment on 14th Street SE, when the gunshots began around 3 a.m.
Prosecutors say surveillance video captured Rucker leaving his building on L Street SE, almost directly across the street, before he “walked into the street, produced a firearm and fired several shots into the back of the parked car,” according to a plea agreement.
Three of Cheadle’s relatives, including her father, Larry Cheadle, were inside the car, but the child was the only one injured. He rushed her inside and up three flights of stairs, while others called paramedics.
Minutes after the shooting and before police arrived, surveillance video captured Rucker again, according to an arrest warrant. This time, the recording showed Rucker returning to the scene and canvassing the street for bullet casings using the flashlight from his phone.
“Several times, the suspect would bend over and appear to retrieve an item from the ground,” detectives said.
Rucker was arrested a week after the shooting on July 12, 2025, and is set to be sentenced on Dec. 14.
“This kind of senseless violence devastates families and communities,” U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said in a news release Thursday. “It will not be tolerated.”
Tonia Cheadle, Honesty’s aunt, told The Post in an earlier interview that she liked to think that her niece — whom she affectionately called “flip mode,” for her love of doing flips — looked like her. The girl spent a lot of time at her aunt’s apartment, where her grandmother and Larry Cheadle also live.
Honesty’s death was a completely unexpected loss for the family, Tonia Cheadle said.
“We weren’t prepared for this,” she said.
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