Shaheed O. Smith, a 31-year-old Black / African American male, died after an early-morning home invasion and shooting in Elsmere, Delaware, on April 16, 2023. The violence unfolded around 1:00 a.m. in the unit block of Elsmere Boulevard in the Silverbrook Gardens section of town, where Elsmere police responded to a report that someone had just been shot inside an apartment.
When officers arrived, they learned that two people had forced their way into the apartment.
During the intrusion, Smith was shot once in the chest. The same intruders also robbed a second victim before fleeing the scene, leaving behind a chaotic and violent aftermath inside the home. Smith was taken to a local hospital, but he did not survive his injuries and was pronounced dead.
Public memorial and obituary information identified him as Shaheed Omar Smith, also known as “Heedy.” He was born on March 7, 1992, in Chester, Pennsylvania, and was raised in Wilmington, Delaware, where he attended Wilmington public schools. His obituary described him as someone with a welcoming spirit, a loving father, son, brother, uncle, nephew, cousin, and friend, and noted that he later earned a certification through Job Corps for facility maintenance.
After the killing, Elsmere police publicly sought help in the investigation, treating the case as a home invasion and homicide. The publicly available reports located did not name either intruder, did not identify any suspect or suspects, and did not report any arrests, charges, trial proceedings, or convictions connected to Smith’s death. The case was presented in public police materials as an active investigation in which authorities were asking for assistance from anyone who might know what happened inside that Elsmere Boulevard apartment in the early hours of April 16, 2023.
