A 21-year-old man was fatally shot Tuesday night in Wilmington’s East Side neighborhood, ending more than two months of no homicides in Delaware’s largest city.
The shooting occurred at the intersection of East 10th and North Spruce streets about 9:25 p.m. Tuesday, according to Wilmington Police. The victim, who was identified as Derek Brown, died at a local hospital, police said.
Surveillance video from the scene shows Brown riding his bicycle along North Spruce Street. As he turns onto East 10th Street, he jumps off the bike and starts to run, but is gunned down after only about five feet.
The footage shows him laying face down on the ground, the bike resting near a fire hydrant. Police – who arrived on the scene within two minutes of the shooting – later placed several evidence markers where bullet casings landed nearby.
Chalk markers remained on the sidewalk Wednesday morning where Brown fell, an “H” and an “F” marking where his head and feet were. A small amount of blood also remained on the sidewalk.
The area was relatively quiet Wednesday, with several people sitting or standing along nearby street corners. But residents who live in an apartment building where the shooting happened said they were scared and frustrated by Brown’s death.
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Several women who have lived in the red brick building for about five years said there have been 11 or 12 shootings in the several blocks near the building during the time they’ve lived there.
Delaware Online/The News Journal’s shooting database shows that in 2021 alone, there were five separate shootings with eight victims in a three-block area along East 10th Street.
The women said they feel stuck in the apartment building, a 26-unit complex for “very low-income senior citizens 62 years and older,” according to its webpage. It is a $7.1 million United States Department of Housing and Urban Development project.
“The (violence) does make me want to move, but because of COVID and the economy, I can’t,” said one woman, who did not want to be identified because she fears for her safety.
“It’s not the building,” another woman added. “It’s the kids who don’t have any value of life.”
They said they were thankful a resident who lives on the building’s first floor was not home when Tuesday’s shooting occurred. A bullet pierced his bedroom window, shattering part of the glass.
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The residents also said they feel they cannot leave the building at night because of the number of people carrying guns and the violence that might erupt at any moment. Video from the shooting shows a gun fly out of Brown’s left side as he falls to the ground. It lands on the sidewalk several feet from him.
“We have one person who moved out because she went down to a (nearby corner store) and somebody beat her for her money,” said the woman who did not want to be identified. “We feel trapped.”
Tuesday’s incident is Wilmington’s first reported homicide since the Dec. 6 fatal shooting of 37-year-old Maurice Harrigan.
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Harrigan’s slaying was Wilmington’s 41st homicide of 2021, which saw more people killed in the city than any previous year. Last year’s homicides included 39 people killed by gunfire, one person fatally stabbed and another who was beaten to death.
Contact Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299, eparra@delawareonline.com or Twitter @eparra3.
