Michael Wright, a 57-year-old Black / African American male, died after he was shot in Wilmington, Delaware, in the early hours of July 5, 2022. Police were called at about 2:15 a.m. to the 100 block of Cedar Street in the city’s Browntown neighborhood, where they found Wright suffering from gunshot wounds. He was taken to a hospital, but he did not survive his injuries.
To people who knew him, Wright was not just another name attached to a shooting scene.
His brother, Jay Wright, said he was known around the neighborhood as “Mr. Mike,” a familiar presence who tried to help others and step in when problems started around the block. He was described as someone who tried to resolve disputes, intervene when tensions rose, and keep the area clean and safe. That made the way he died especially hard for his family to understand.
Jay Wright said he did not know exactly what happened before the shooting, but he connected the violence to a broader problem of young people carrying guns and failing to settle disagreements without gunfire. He said the fact that his brother died by shooting left him stunned, calling it “ridiculous” and saying that people were shooting as if they were in the “wild Wild West.” The killing happened just one day after two young children, ages 6 and 7, were wounded by gunfire in another Wilmington incident, underscoring the wave of violence the city was facing at the time.
Wright’s obituary identified him as Michael Tyrone Wright, born September 2, 1964, in Wilmington to Laverne Wright and the late Otis Wright Jr. It said he was known by several affectionate names, including Mike, Mikey, Mr. Mike, and Mike Mike, and that he was educated in Wilmington Public Schools before graduating from Glasgow High School in 1982. His death on July 5, 2022, was also recorded by the National Gun Violence Memorial as a fatal gun violence case in Wilmington.
Publicly available reports did not identify a suspect, announce an arrest, or describe charges, a trial, or a conviction in Wright’s killing. Wilmington police asked anyone with information to contact Detective Steven Bender or Delaware Crime Stoppers. Based on the available online reporting, the case remained publicly unresolved, with no named suspect or confirmed arrest found in the sources reviewed.
