Devontre Taylor, a 35-year-old Black/African American male from Wilmington, was killed on the morning of August 23, 2024, after a meeting at the Harbor House Apartments in Claymont, Delaware turned deadly. Police were called to the 100 block of Harbor Drive at about 10:27 a.m. for a shooting, and when officers arrived, they found Taylor suffering from a gunshot wound.
He was rushed to a local hospital, but he was pronounced dead there.
The investigation quickly focused on a man who witnesses or reports indicated had gone into a building within the apartment complex after the shooting. Because of that information, SWAT and the Crisis Negotiation Team responded to the scene. Officers detained a man at the building who matched the suspect description and took him to New Castle County Police Headquarters. Detectives later identified him as 27-year-old Michael Toombs of Claymont.
Police said Toombs was charged the same day with first-degree murder, first-degree robbery, manufacture/delivery/possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, and three counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. He was arraigned at Justice of the Peace Court 11 and committed to the Howard R. Young Correctional Institution on $950,000 cash bail.
Later, prosecutors described the events leading up to Taylor's death in more detail. According to investigators, Taylor and Toombs arranged by phone to meet at the Claymont apartment complex for a drug transaction. They met in person around 10:20 a.m., and within minutes, Toombs shot and killed Taylor before fleeing back to his apartment. When police searched Toombs' residence after his arrest, they recovered the handgun used in Taylor's murder, hundreds of bags of fentanyl, and Taylor's phone.
The case moved forward to trial, and on October 16, 2025, a Superior Court jury convicted Michael R. Toombs of first-degree murder, felony murder, first-degree robbery, drug dealing, and four counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. An additional charge of possession of a firearm by a person prohibited was severed from the trial and was expected to be addressed at sentencing. Sentencing was tentatively scheduled for January 2026.
Taylor's death began as a midmorning shooting call at a Claymont apartment complex and ended with investigators tying the killing to an arranged drug transaction, a recovered murder weapon, fentanyl, and the victim's phone found in the suspect's home. Toombs was the identified suspect, arrested the day of the shooting, and later convicted in connection with Taylor's death.
