WASHINGTON - The man accused of killing a nine-year-old boy during a robbery was found dead in his jail cell Wednesday.

D.C's Department of Corrections has confirmed Josue Pena, who was accused of shooting through a door and killing 9-year-old Oscar Fuentes in Columbia Heights weeks ago, committed suicide Wednesday afternoon at the DC Jail.

D.C. Resident Kevin Ryan said, "It's sad that it happened. The fact that he killed himself is another thing, you know, because he probably was feeling guilty about it."

The call for a medical emergency at the jail rang out at 1 p.m. Sources say the 26-year-old used a bedsheet and hung himself inside his cell. He was rushed to Howard University hospital where sources say he was pronounced dead an hour later.

"You just feel terrible for the family at the end of the day " Rocio Suarez, a neighbor.

Pena was charged with first-degree murder for the death of 9-year-old Oscar Fuentes, who was shot through the door in his family's apartment in the 1400 block of Columbia Road in Northwest D.C.

Although Pena was a known associated of the MS-13 gang, police believe the motive for the murder was not gang-related. Police believe Pena was attempting to rob the Fuentes family outside their home as they returned from a baby shower that night. When they refused police believe Pena followed them inside their building through a broken front door and then fired one shot through their apartment door.

Oscar's cousin Rufino Fuentes said the family told him Oscar had been looking through the peephole at one point, "And then they saw the little boy was crying and calling 'Mom, Mom look what they did to me.'"

Metropolitan Police arrested Pena, a Salvadoran immigrant, on Nov. 17 in a Hyattsville building where he was sleeping. He had been working as a carpenter at a home in Northwest.

In court, prosecutors said five witnesses put Pena at the scene of the shooting. A sixth witness said he saw Pena going into his uncle's house Saturday night with a long-barreled gun, prosecutors added. A search of the uncle's house turned up a .22-caliber rifle -- with two spent shells -- that was hidden between a mattress and box spring, according to police.

"When he was leaving he told me that he was going to put something away. I didn't see what it was," said Castillo Areniva, Pena's uncle. "Like I told the police, that was my mistake, not noticing what he left behind."

Pena denied trying to rob anyone and claimed the gun went off accidentally while on his waist as he left the building.

"He told me it was an accident and regrets it, but it's too late for regrets," said Areniva. "I told him 'that was just an innocent boy, why couldn't you see that?'"

Pena was due back in court on Dec. 1 but now the accused killer won't face a judge in Oscar Fuentes' murder.

"For the family, it's gotta be even more unsettling because they never got to see their day in court so it's just a sad situation all around," said Jonathan Bartlett of D.C.

One source said Pena had attempted suicide a week ago and that he was not on suicide watch. As of 5 p.m.  we hadn't heard back from officials at D.C. Corrections so we could ask them about that serious allegation.

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