Less than a year after 19-year-old Dmajah Tickles was fatally shot near Wilmington’s Price Run neighborhood, prosecutors have charged the man they say pulled the trigger.
Tramont Mitchell was arrested Wednesday on first-degree murder and several firearms charges following the May 19 shooting, which occurred just before 9:15 p.m. near East 23rd and Carter streets.
First responders found Tickles badly injured and rushed him to the hospital. He died there.
While a motive for the killing is unclear, family and friends previously told Delaware Online/The News Journal that Tickles was simply hanging out in the area when he was shot.
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The block is a gathering spot for locals, and on the night of the shooting, red Solo Cups littered the ground and at least a dozen people were on the street.
In the wake of the 19-year-old’s death, a number of Wilmington residents, including Tickles’ uncle Eric, said they believed loitering was to blame for some of the city’s violence. They also said they believed there were not enough options keeping the city’s youth busy.
“There is absolutely nothing in that area, except the P.A.L., which is way up the street and the P.A.L. does not necessarily host programs for this particular population,” Wilmington Rev. Derrick “Pastor D” Johnson told Delaware Online/The News Journal following the shooting.
At the time, Eric Tickles echoed the clergymen. He said when he was younger, he would play basketball or swim at recreation centers or the Boys and Girls Clubs. Teens and young adults aren’t doing that now because the options aren’t close, he said.
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But Wilmington District 3 Councilwoman Zanthia Oliver disagreed, saying there is a Boys and Girls Club is located about seven blocks away, and the Wilmington HOPE Commission – which aims at revitalizing the city’s most underserved communities – is also relatively close.
Still, Tickles had gone through the HOPE Commission program and had been largely successful in it, the young man’s former mentor, Anthony Stanziale, told Delaware Online/The News Journal.
Mitchell was arraigned Wednesday and taken to the Howard R. Young Correctional Institution on $1.6 million cash bail.
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