Two men were shot in unrelated Wilmington attacks Tuesday, five hours apart, leaving a 20-year-old and a 32-year-old hospitalized as police in Delaware's largest city investigate yet another violent day. The first shooting struck in the 1500 block of Duncan Street around 2:11 p.m., and the second hit the 400 block of North Monroe Street just before 7:40 p.m., according to police.
In the Duncan Street shooting, a 20-year-old man suffered at least one gunshot wound and was taken to the hospital, where he is listed in stable condition, according to NBC10 Philadelphia. Police identified Detective Thomas Rittenhouse as the investigator leading that case; he can be reached at 302-576-3653 for anyone with information.
Hours later, officers responding to North Monroe Street found a 32-year-old man who had been shot. He, too, was taken to the hospital and is listed in stable condition, per the same report. Detective Jessica Gledhill is leading that investigation and can be reached at 302-576-3667.
A Corridor With a Recent History of Gunfire
The North Monroe Street shooting landed in a stretch of West Center City that has seen firearm violence before. In May, Wilmington police investigated a non-fatal shooting near West 5th and North Monroe streets that left a 20-year-old woman hospitalized in stable condition, a case led by Detective Ryan Kilmon, according to First State Update.
The neighborhood's struggles trace back further still. Areas surrounding North Monroe Street experienced significant disruption after the April 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., which triggered a nine-month National Guard occupation of Wilmington — the longest federal military occupation of a U.S. city since the Civil War, according to Out & About Magazine.
Part of a Late-September Surge
Tuesday's two shootings did not happen in isolation. Wilmington had already logged at least nine shooting incidents with more than a dozen victims in the span of a single month leading into late September, a spike that prompted community safety meetings across city neighborhoods, Hoodline previously reported.
That surge has included a range of violent incidents across the city this month, from a fatal shooting that killed a 22-year-old man at an intersection tied to a 2022 gang murder, to a shooting outside a local store that killed one person and injured three others.
Public-Safety Efforts
Mayor John Carney and Police Chief Wilfredo Campos have pointed to proactive policing and community safety initiatives, according to the City of Wilmington.
Wilmington has an Office of Community Safety.
Firearms Trafficking
Behind the local statistics sits a broader trafficking problem. Federal ATF trace data analyzed in March found that law enforcement recovered 1,434 crime guns in Delaware in 2023, with more than half recovered in Wilmington, Newark, and New Castle, and roughly 55 percent of those guns had a time-to-crime under three years, according to Everytown Research & Policy.
How to Help
Anyone with information about either the Duncan Street or North Monroe Street shooting is asked to contact Delaware Crime Stoppers at 1-800-TIP-3333 or through delawarecrimestoppers.com. Tips submitted anonymously that lead to an arrest can earn a cash reward of up to $1,000.
