Donald R. “Donnie” Nave III, a 32-year-old man from Wilmington, Delaware, was fatally shot on the morning of September 6, 2026, in the Colonial Heights area just outside Wilmington. Nave was born and raised in Wilmington and owned 3 Brothers Contracting. His obituary described him as a devoted father and family man who was engaged to Chelsea Cooke and especially valued time spent with his children.
That Sunday morning, Nave was returning to his home on South Cleveland Avenue with Cooke and one of their children when, according to Cooke, a man approached from behind and opened fire on him. Cooke later said that she and the child were close to the vehicle when the shooting occurred. At approximately 9:11 a.m., New Castle County police officers were dispatched to the unit block of South Cleveland Avenue following a report of gunfire. Officers and emergency medical personnel found Nave suffering from multiple gunshot wounds and immediately began life-saving measures. He was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Detectives with the New Castle County Division of Police Criminal Investigations Unit quickly began piecing together what had led to the killing. Investigators developed information about a possible suspect and a Chevrolet Sonic believed to have been used in connection with the shooting. Using automated license-plate-reader technology, detectives obtained the vehicle’s registration information and determined that it belonged to Hector Sanchez of Wilmington. Investigators also learned that Sanchez and Nave had been involved in a traffic-related altercation sometime in August 2026, roughly a month before the homicide. Police have not publicly detailed exactly what occurred during that confrontation.
Cooke told reporters that the conflict had not simply ended with the earlier traffic incident. She alleged that Sanchez had continued harassing Nave in the days before the shooting. Authorities have confirmed the earlier traffic-related altercation but have released considerably fewer details about any subsequent encounters, and the precise sequence of events between the August dispute and Nave’s killing has not been publicly disclosed. Investigators nevertheless treated the earlier confrontation as potentially significant to the motive for the homicide.
Detectives subsequently located Sanchez’s Chevrolet Sonic in the 800 block of Market Street in Wilmington. Police obtained a search warrant for his residence, and members of the New Castle County Police Crisis Management Group assisted detectives with executing the warrant. Sanchez was taken into custody at approximately 6:56 p.m. on September 6, less than a day after Nave was killed. Police said evidence connecting Sanchez to the homicide investigation was recovered during the execution of the warrant, although authorities did not publicly describe that evidence in detail.
Sanchez was taken to New Castle County Police Headquarters and charged with one felony count of first-degree murder and one felony count of possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony. He was arraigned in Justice of the Peace Court 11 and committed to the Howard R. Young Correctional Institution in lieu of $1 million cash bail. As of the latest publicly available reporting, no trial, plea, or conviction in Nave’s killing has been reported, and the criminal charges against Sanchez remain allegations unless and until proven in court.
Nave’s death left behind a family preparing for a future that suddenly changed. His obituary identified Cooke as his fiancée and listed two children, while reporting about the shooting said the couple was expecting another child. Those who knew Nave remembered him as someone devoted to his family, his contracting business, and the people around him. What began with an apparently ordinary traffic confrontation weeks earlier was, according to investigators, potentially connected to the violence that ended his life outside his Wilmington-area home.
