4-year-old shot to death while sleeping, and his family grieves their ‘ray of light’

Every night 4-year-old Jayce Edwards and his little brother, Wolfe, slept in the bed with their grandma.

The boys never went to sleep right away, their grandmother Victoria Wheeler said. They’d stay up talking to each other or arguing over whose turn it was to play Roblox on the phone before drifting off to sleep.

Even if they found themselves dozing off somewhere else in the house, before the night was over they’d always find their way back to their grandma’s bed. It was their comfort place, especially after their mother’s cancer took a turn for the worse (which would lead to its own tragedy earlier this year).

So on the morning of Sept. 17, like he did everyday, Jayce slept beside his grandma in the upstairs bedroom in their Steele Creek townhome.

Wheeler heard about violent crime every day in Charlotte watching the local news. But in the four years she lived in her home off Cigar Court – in a quiet, tucked away neighborhood with old, established trees canopying over the streets – she never expected the violence she heard about on TV to tear its way through her home.

Early that morning, Wheeler remembers getting up to use the restroom when she saw bright headlights pouring through her windows. Then came the gunshots. Jayce’s scream pulled her back to the bedroom where she saw blood on the mattress. When she pulled back the covers, she realized her grandson had been shot.

In the midst of stealing a neighbor’s Black Dodge Charger, a gunman shot “directly and intentionally” into Wheeler’s home in what police said was an unprovoked shooting. Jayce was pronounced dead at the scene. Four men have been arrested and charged in his death.

Jayce was working on getting his numbers and ABC’s down pat, learning to tie his shoes, reading books at the library with his aunties and cousins.

His family never got a chance to enroll him into Pre-K and Jayce never got to decide what he wanted to be when he grew up. Jayce was no average kid. To his family, he was joy personified – impossible to be mad at, a ball of energy, a “ray of light.”

As Wheeler watched her grandson take his last breaths, she couldn’t bear to leave him, she said.

“When the officer asked me to leave, I didn’t want to leave the house,” his grandmother said. “I said, ‘No, I need to be here with him.’ Even though I already knew the reality. I want to hold him one more time. (But) I can’t get that. I can’t hold him again… it’s gonna bother me for a while.”

A ray of sunshine

When Jayce spent time at his great aunt La Shonda Edwards’ house he followed the same routine: He’d kick his shoes off in front of the laundry room, stand in front of her fan to get some cool air, then make his way into her bedroom to gaze at himself in her big mirror.

“Hi Jayce! How you doin’?” he’d say to himself. It was only then he’d turn to greet his auntie Shonda, she said through a laugh.

Strangers weren’t a concept that Jayce grasped very well, his family said.

The 4-year-old would approach anyone, bearing his cheeky, dimple-filled grin. To Jayce, a reciprocated smile was an invitation – soon, he was introducing himself and striking up a conversation.

And when he wasn’t being silly or talking to anyone who’d listen, Jayce was with his 2-year-old younger brother, Wolfe.

Jayce was protective of his baby brother and insistent on showing him everything a 4-year-old knew about life – like how to brush his teeth or how to properly use the bathroom during potty training. Jayce was a huge help in keeping his baby brother occupied while she was working, his grandmother said.

His two older brothers are dealing with the loss differently. The oldest, Josiah, who’s 16, has become more protective of his younger brothers, his great aunts said. The second oldest, Johan, 10, has felt angry.

In a Wednesday interview in Edwards’ apartment, small smiles curled up on the lips of his great aunts and grandmother as Wolfe bounced from the couch, to the ottoman, down to the floor where he wheeled his tricycle through the living room.

Jayce and his brother slept together, ate together, and took baths together. They were practically linked at the hip. But now photos, videos and oral histories have to keep alive Wolfe’s memory of the person he spent practically every waking moment with.

“Now with Jayce gone we’re gonna have to fill those gaps in for him,” his great aunt Nicole Johnson said as she gazed at the 2-year-old. “This is a person who was by his side all the time.”

Sister’s keeper

Earlier this year, the family faced another devastating loss when Jayce’s mother – Victoria Olivia – died in January from stage 4 colon cancer.

Wheeler and her sisters – La Shonda and Nicole – have always been close. But when Wheeler’s daughter died, the two stepped up to help their big sister with the responsibility of raising her four grandsons.

Their bond with Jayce was deeper than him being their nephew, they said. He became an integral part of their life. The sisters would take turns having the young boys at their house and making sure they had everything they needed. Johnson would drive up from her home in Columbia to take them on the weekends.

“When you lose a family member and there’s children involved. It’s not just being there sometimes. You become the family,” Johnson said. “When he comes over to the house, it’s not just, ‘Oh, I’m coming over for a little bit.’ No. He has clothes there. He knows where to go. He knows where he sleeps.”

With Victoria Olivia and now Jayce gone, they understand that they play a role in making sure Wolfe remembers them. But in just a week after Jayce’s death, they can’t help but ask: Why? What did they do to lose both of them in such short succession?

Maybe heaven needed Jayce, Edwards said. “But on the other hand, I look at it as why would God take his mom just to turn around and take him?” she said through tears. “I kind of battle with that. Hopefully I’ll get to a place where I’m OK with it. But right now? I’m not.”

A newfound mission

His life wasn’t just lost, Jayce was taken. Stolen by a senseless act of violence, his family said. And with it, the world was robbed of the opportunity to see his full potential. But in his absence, the sisters have a newfound purpose.

“That’s where we come in,” Johnson said. “We have got to let the world know who Jayce was.”

A week after his death, Jayce’s grandmother and his great aunts have already considered how this moment can be turned into action. His death won’t be in vain if Jayce’s love is felt by others through the way they live their lives. They have to be better, for him.

When she’s able to find a semblance of peace, Wheeler has considered starting a support group to help people who’ve lost loved ones to gun violence. While she’s had her sister’s support through this moment, she recognizes that there are many people who face these losses alone.

The sisters also want to see change from this tragedy. The community, Edwards said, has to start holding each other accountable and not turning a blind eye to bad behavior.

“If somebody knows, ‘Hey, if I go out and I break the law, nobody in my family is going to deal with me after that,’ just maybe they’ll think twice if they actually have something to lose,” she said. “... If you knew that everybody you cared about was going to turn their back on you, just maybe that’ll make you think twice.”

There also have to be stricter gun laws, Johnson said. And higher penalties for people who purchase guns illegally.

“People always talk about the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms. But what about the pursuit of happiness? Life, liberty. My 4-year-old nephew, where’s his life? His happiness? That should come before anything else.”

But above all, his grandmother wants justice.

“I’m not talking about no slap on the wrist. Five years, six. No. Justice,” Wheeler said. “Minimum, 25. The max – life. I want justice. They’re still alive. They still get to see their birthdays and Christmas, spend time with their family. Unfortunately, Jayce don’t.”

The family has set up a Go Fund Me to help with support Wheeler and her grandsons. A memorial will be held for Jayce next month.

This story was originally published September 26, 2025 at 5:39 AM.