Three people were rushed to the hospital after a shooting broke out near 24th and Washington Streets in Wilmington around 4 p.m. Thursday, according to Wilmington police. No arrests had been announced as of Thursday evening, and the incident remains under investigation.
The shooting, reported by CBS News Philadelphia, left three people injured and transported to area hospitals. As of this morning, one of the individuals has passed away, whole the other two are now in stable condition.
The shooting adds a layer of unease to an already tense corner of northeast Wilmington. In June, a Wilmington police officer fatally shot 19-year-old Kadir Skinner near 24th and Jessup Streets, an incident that triggered months of community protests, a $25 million wrongful death lawsuit against the city, and a state Department of Justice review, according to Spotlight Delaware.
A Violent Stretch Across the City
Thursday's shooting follows a cluster of violence that has gripped Wilmington in recent weeks. Just a day earlier, Hoodline reported on two shootings in one day that hospitalized a 20-year-old and a 32-year-old. Two weeks ago, two teenagers were killed and a 15-year-old was critically injured in separate shootings within an hour of each other, including one near 34th and Washington Streets, according to 6abc Action News.That mid-September violence prompted Wilmington Police to deploy specialized youth response units for community support, per the same report.
The 24th and Washington corridor itself carries a long history of gun violence. An October 2013 double shooting at the same intersection marked the city's 137th gun violence victim of that year, according to Delaware Liberal. Local outreach groups have previously held street meetings there to combat persistent neighborhood gun crime, per the Wilmington Peacekeepers group.
Citywide Numbers Had Been Trending Down
The recent surge stands in contrast to broader citywide trends. The Wilmington Police Department's 2025 Year-End Report, released in January, showed the city recorded 64 shooting incidents in 2025 — its lowest single-year total since 2003 — along with a 20% drop in homicides and a 21% reduction in shooting incidents compared to 2024, according to the City of Wilmington. Officials attributed the multi-year decline to targeted group violence intervention strategies and community outreach programs.
New Castle County, which includes Wilmington, logged 185 shooting incidents in 2025, down from 204 the year before, but it continues to account for the majority of firearm violence occurrences statewide, according to End Community Violence Now. By comparison, Kent and Sussex counties recorded 57 and 49 shooting incidents respectively during the same year.
State Lawmakers Push Tighter Gun Rules
The uptick in Wilmington shootings comes as Delaware policymakers have moved aggressively on firearm regulation. On September 8, the Delaware Supreme Court ruled 4-1 to uphold House Bill 451, a 2022 law restricting people ages 18 to 20 from purchasing, owning, or possessing most firearms without direct adult supervision or a concealed carry permit, reversing a lower court ruling that had briefly struck the restrictions down, per the Delaware Department of Justice.
That same month, Governor Matt Meyer signed Senate Bill 300, requiring gun sellers statewide to obtain licenses from the Delaware State Police, undergo mandatory biennial training, and maintain video surveillance and detailed sales records, according to WGMD. State police were also granted authority to inspect licensed dealers and issue civil penalties or license revocations for noncompliance. The legislation builds on Executive Order #9, which Meyer signed in May 2025 to create the state's Office of Gun Violence Prevention and Community Safety, later codified into permanent law.
An Everytown for Gun Safety analysis of 2023 ATF trace data found that more than half of Delaware's 1,434 recovered crime guns were seized in Wilmington, Newark, and New Castle, with 55% having been purchased less than three years before recovery — a pattern researchers consider a key indicator of illegal firearm trafficking. Public health data compiled for Delaware between 2019 and 2023 also showed that people ages 15 to 34 accounted for 63% of all firearm homicide victims statewide, with Black residents 16 times more likely to die by gun homicide than white residents, per Omnilert.
