Two Wilmington teenagers are dead and a 15-year-old is fighting for his life after a pair of shootings tore through the city within roughly an hour of each other Sunday afternoon. Police say a 19-year-old was killed near 34th and Washington streets just after 3:15 p.m., and less than an hour later, an 18-year-old and a 15-year-old were shot near 2nd and North DuPont streets.
According to 6abc, the 19-year-old died at the scene of the first shooting, while the 18-year-old was rushed to a hospital and later died from his injuries. The 15-year-old shot in the second incident remains in critical condition, the station reported. Wilmington police are still working to identify and locate the gunmen responsible for both attacks.
A City Still Reeling From a Violent Week
Sunday's shootings come just a week after three people — a 19-year-old man, a 31-year-old man, and a 21-year-old woman — were wounded in a single shooting in Wilmington's Southbridge neighborhood, all of whom survived, as Hoodline previously reported. That incident followed other news earlier this month and came months after other police activity in Wilmington.
Teenagers and young adults have repeatedly turned up on both sides of Wilmington's gun violence this year. In late June, a Wilmington police officer shot and killed a 19-year-old man during a foot pursuit after officers alleged he pointed a handgun at a crowd, an incident that drew calls for investigation from family members and community advocates, per CBS News. Earlier that same month, a 23-year-old hospital employee was arrested after opening fire inside Wilmington Hospital, wounding two people before fleeing to Philadelphia, where he was apprehended and extradited back to Delaware on attempted murder charges, according to 6abc Philadelphia.
A Statewide Legal Fight Over Guns and Age
The shootings land just five days after Delaware's Supreme Court reinstated House Bill 451, the state's law restricting people under 21 from purchasing, owning, or possessing most firearms, with narrow exceptions for hunting and sporting. The court's 4-1 decision, issued September 8, overturned a 2025 lower court ruling that had temporarily blocked the statute, according to Delaware News.
Under Delaware Code Title 11, state law addresses juvenile firearm possession by prohibited persons, per the Delaware General Assembly. A report on Delaware's gun violence discussed its disproportionate demographic impacts and statewide effects, according to WHYY.
Progress on Paper, Persistent Danger on the Street
The renewed violence stands in stark contrast to Wilmington's official crime numbers. The city reported that citywide shooting incidents hit their lowest annual total in 2025 since 2003, with double-digit percentage drops in homicides, shooting incidents, and shooting victims compared to the year before.
Wilmington runs a Group Violence Intervention initiative that pairs targeted law enforcement with direct social service referrals, according to Delaware Public Media. The city also uses community-based approaches to address violence.
Details of Wilmington's youth-curfew rules, including their hours and enforcement provisions, were not available in the cited reports. It remains unclear whether investigators have identified any connection or retaliatory motive linking Sunday's two shooting scenes, and Wilmington police had not released further details on suspects as of the initial report.
