Montgomery County police announced Wednesday that a man who was found dead in a Silver Spring apartment early Tuesday was identified as Ellis Rudolph Smith Jr., 45, of Silver Spring.
On Tuesday, county police charged Wesley Cooper, 46, of Gaithersburg with murder in the death of Smith, whose body was found after police responded to an apartment in the 1140 block of Stewart Lane for a report of a “fight in progress,” according to a police statement.
Cooper was also charged with assault and is being held at the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit in Boyds.
While the statement said Cooper was charged with first-degree murder and second-degree assault, court records indicate the charges were second-degree murder and first-degree assault.
Police spokesperson Shiera Goff wrote in an email to MoCo360 Wednesday that detectives had provided the charges included in Tuesday’s release. Goff said police would look into clarifying the charges filed against Cooper.
No attorney information for Cooper was available Tuesday in court records.
According to police, officers responded shortly after 1 a.m. Tuesday to a report of a “fight in progress” in the Silver Spring apartment.
Officers met with Cooper and then found Smith’s body inside the apartment, and he was pronounced dead on scene, the statement said.
Smith’s body was transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for an autopsy to determine the cause and manner of death, the statement said.
