Ki'Asia Danae Hamilton, 21, a female from New Bern, died on October 8, 2025, after being struck by gunfire during a late-night exchange of shots near the intersection of Neuse Boulevard and Glenburnie Road. Officers responded just before midnight and found that two men had argued and begun shooting at one another in the area by a Burger King; Hamilton suffered a single gunshot wound, was taken to CarolinaEast Medical Center, and was later pronounced dead.
Her death and funeral arrangements were subsequently noted by her family in a local obituary, confirming her age and the date of her passing.
Detectives quickly located both men linked to the shootout—one at CarolinaEast Medical Center and the other at a home in the Derby Park area—and recovered evidence connected to the case. Police identified the suspects as Okoy'e Koonce, 20, and DeAnthony C. Scott, 25; each was charged with one count of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and confined at the Craven County Jail on $500,000 bond as the investigation continued. Community memorial pages and subsequent local reporting echoed those details while emphasizing that the inquiry remained active as officers gathered statements and processed the scene.
Hamilton’s name was added to regional gun-violence memorials that recorded her age, city, and the date she was killed. Those same listings pointed back to the initial police accounts and local news coverage, underscoring how a dispute between others cascaded into a fatality for a bystander. As of the most recent reports, authorities continued asking witnesses to come forward to aid the case against the two men already in custody.
