Count it off the releases and the number is twenty. From Saturday night, October 31, through Tuesday night, November 3, twenty people were shot in Delaware, in four separate shootings, in four different towns. Two of them died.
A count of 19 has been circulating. It is built on the first number Newark police put out — six — before the department's own update raised it to seven. Team Murphy Media built this tally the slow way: one incident at a time, off the release issued by the agency that worked the scene. Nine plus seven plus one plus three. Twenty.
Ellendale — nine shot, one killed. Around 10:00 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 31, gunfire hit an outdoor party in the 18000 block of Beach Highway. Nine people were shot. Love Cannon, 17, of Seaford, was killed; State Police identified him in their Nov. 2 update. A 20-year-old Seaford man was left with life-threatening injuries and is now in stable condition. The other seven victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries. (Delaware State Police, Nov. 1; victim update Nov. 2.)
Newark — seven shot. About an hour later, around 11:13 p.m., seven people were shot on East Main Street at Choate Street. Newark police first reported six victims. A seventh — a 17-year-old boy with a graze wound to his lower body, who had left the scene — was located on Monday, Nov. 2, and confirmed in the department's Update #4 on Nov. 3. No one died in Newark. In the department's Nov. 1 updates, a 15-year-old boy shot in the back was in critical condition and several other victims were seriously wounded. One of the wounded, a 16-year-old, was charged with firearm offenses; police have not said that he fired a shot. (Newark Police Department, Nov. 1–3.)
New Castle — one shot. Around 1:45 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 1, a 29-year-old man was shot in the parking lot of the Penn Mart Shopping Center. His injuries were non-life-threatening. Two vehicles in the lot were also struck by gunfire. (Delaware State Police, Nov. 2.)
Wilmington — three shot, one killed. Around 8:49 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 3, three people were shot in the 2300 block of Jessup Street. A 27-year-old man died. Wilmington police have not released his name, and we are not going to print one they haven't given. A 31-year-old woman and a 21-year-old woman were both in stable condition. (Wilmington Police Department alert, Nov. 3.)
And two more scenes where nobody got hit — this time. On Sunday afternoon, Nov. 1, at about 5:10 p.m., gunfire struck a southbound driver's vehicle on I-95 near the Christiana Mall; the driver was not injured. About forty minutes later, at 5:50 p.m., multiple shots struck an occupied home in the 18000 block of Hunting Club Road in Georgetown. Nobody inside was hit. Both scenes come from Delaware State Police releases, and neither adds a single name to the count of the shot — they just show how close the count came to being longer.
Where the cases stand, going only by what the releases say: the only charge in any of the four is Newark's — the wounded 16-year-old charged with firearm offenses. No other arrests have been announced in any of the four.
Look at the ages in this story. Seventeen, killed in Ellendale. Fifteen, critical in Newark. Sixteen, wounded and charged. Seventeen again, grazed and gone before police arrived. That is not a statistic buried in the count — it is most of the count.
Ellendale. Newark. New Castle. Wilmington. Four investigations, four corners of one small state, one long weekend that stretched to Tuesday. Twenty people shot. Two of them dead. That is what four days cost Delaware.
Sources: Delaware State Police releases (Nov. 1, 2, 3); Newark Police Department releases incl. Update #4 (Nov. 1–3); Wilmington Police Department alert (Nov. 3). Every incident above was previously reported by Team Murphy Media 302 as it developed.
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