‘I snapped’: Woman trusted her retired cop husband to protect kids at their day care. Then a parent reveals he abused her child, so she pulls the trigger

Shanteari Weems saw herself as a woman on a mission to protect children. Her husband, James Weems, was supposed to be her partner in that mission. But when she learned he was accused of molesting children at the day care she owned in Baltimore, she drove to a Washington, D.C. hotel and shot him twice. Now, both their lives have been changed forever by that night in July 2022.

Shanteari Weems, 50, owned Lil Kidz Kastle Daycare Center in Owings Mills, Maryland. Her husband, James Weems Jr., a retired Baltimore police officer, worked there as a van driver. In July 2022, Baltimore County police told Shanteari that they were looking into reports of child sexual abuse at her day care, but they did not give her many details about who was being investigated.

“The only person I had to find out information from was my husband,” Shanteari told WUSA9 in an interview from jail. “And he kept saying he didn’t do it. I did believe him.” But then a mother whose child Shanteari had cared for came to her with terrible news. “I saw the pain in her face, and I knew she was not lying,” Shanteari said. “She finally said it was my husband.” That moment broke her. “I snapped,” she said. “I’m not a violent person.”

What happened at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel

On July 21, 2022, Shanteari Weems drove from Baltimore County to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Southwest Washington, where her husband was working private security. After taking her first drink in 20 years, she went to his hotel room and they started arguing. Things got heated, and she shot him in the neck. When he fell to the floor, she shot him again in the leg, breaking his leg bone. James Weems survived but needed surgery, and doctors had to put a metal rod in his leg.

Police found a handwritten note in the hotel room where she wrote that she wanted to hurt him badly, not kill him. Shanteari said she was guilty in November 2022 of assault and carrying a gun without a license. Prosecutors asked for a two-year sentence as part of a deal, but Superior Court Judge Michael O’Keefe surprised everyone by giving her four years in prison in February 2023. The judge said what she did was cruel and that she had no right to take matters into her own hands.

Meanwhile, James Weems Jr. was charged with 33 counts of rape and child sex crimes against at least four children. In November 2024, he was found guilty on charges related to one 10-year-old victim, including sexual abuse of a minor, second-degree rape, and showing sexual materials to a child. 

In April 2025, Baltimore County Circuit Judge Michael Finifter gave him a life sentence. The victim, now 13, wrote in a statement: “I wish Mr. James did not do those bad things to me. I wish I could stop thinking about them. I just want to be a regular kid again.”

Shanteari Weems filed for divorce and helped investigators build a case against her ex-husband. She was let out of prison in December 2025 and hopes to start a nonprofit group to fight child abuse. When asked if she felt sorry for what she did, she said: “I will apologize when he apologizes to those children.” The case has made many people talk about justice, with lots of supporters standing behind Shanteari under the hashtag #FREESHANTEARI. Many see her as someone who took action when she felt the system failed to protect the children in her care.