Orbby Holder, 23, a Black male from Bridgeville, Delaware, was killed on the evening of May 14, 2023, after violence broke out at a gathering on Mill Park Drive. Delaware State Police said troopers were called to the 21000 block of Mill Park Drive at about 7:01 p.m. for a shooting that had just occurred. When they arrived, they found Holder lying in the front yard of a residence suffering from gunshot wounds.
Troopers and EMS personnel tried to save him at the scene before he was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
Investigators said Holder had been at a party on Mill Park Drive when he was confronted by a man who was initially unknown to police. The confrontation escalated, and the man shot Holder with a handgun before fleeing in an unknown direction. In the immediate aftermath, Delaware State Police said no suspect information was available and that the Homicide Unit was actively investigating the case.
For months, Holder's family pushed for answers while the case remained unresolved. His mother, Tikeysha Holder, publicly pleaded for the community to come forward, saying she believed people knew who was responsible but were not telling police what they had seen. She described her son as strong, driven, a brother, and a good friend to many, and said she had been trying to get answers since the night she learned he had been shot. Authorities also said surveillance footage, including home cameras, could be important to helping investigators move the case forward.
A break in the case came in early 2025. Delaware State Police Homicide detectives identified Daveon Showell of Bridgeville as the suspect in Holder's killing. Showell was indicted by a Sussex County Grand Jury on January 27, 2025, and was taken into custody in Accomack, Virginia, on February 3, 2025. At the time of the arrest announcement, he was awaiting extradition back to Delaware.
Upon extradition to Delaware, Showell was expected to face charges including first-degree murder, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and possession of a firearm by a person prohibited. The publicly available reports reviewed did not show a trial outcome or conviction, but they did show that the investigation had shifted from an unknown fleeing gunman to an identified suspect in custody nearly two years after Holder was shot.
