Malik I. Benson, a 22-year-old Black / African American male, was killed on the evening of December 9, 2023, in Wilmington, Delaware. The case began as a shooting report at the Eagle Tobacco Shop at 3505 Miller Road, where Delaware State Police said troopers were called at about 7:17 p.m. When officers first arrived, they found signs that gunfire had erupted in the parking lot, but they did not immediately find a victim there.
Investigators later pieced together that Benson had been
sitting in his vehicle in the tobacco shop parking lot when a dark-colored SUV entered the lot and parked. Someone inside that SUV opened fire, striking Benson. After the shots were fired, the SUV left the area in an unknown direction. Wounded, Benson managed to drive away from the scene, but he only made it a short distance before crashing through a fence at P.S. du Pont Middle School, where his vehicle came to rest on school property.
When police found Benson at the school, he was suffering from a gunshot wound to the upper body. He died at the scene. Police initially withheld his name while relatives were being notified, then later identified him as Malik Benson, with law enforcement describing him as being from Beaumont, Texas. Funeral information identified him as Malik Imodd Benson and noted that he was born on March 13, 2001, in Newark, Delaware, and died on December 9, 2023.
Publicly available law enforcement information does not identify a suspect by name. The only suspect description released in the early investigation was tied to the dark-colored SUV and an occupant inside it who fired several rounds at Benson’s vehicle before fleeing. No publicly available arrest announcement, charging document, trial update, conviction report, or named suspect could be found in connection with Benson’s homicide. Delaware State Police described the Homicide Unit as actively investigating the case and asked anyone with information to contact Detective B. Timmons or Delaware Crime Stoppers.
The picture that emerges from the available reports is of a sudden and targeted burst of violence in a commercial parking lot, followed by Benson’s desperate attempt to get away after being shot. The case remained publicly unresolved in the available online reporting, with investigators still seeking information about the shooter, the SUV, and what led to the fatal encounter.
