Synai Smith, 18, a Black/African American male, was killed late Saturday afternoon, October 23, 2021, in Wilmington, Delaware. Police were called to the 200 block of West 30th Street just before 5:00 p.m. after gunfire broke out in the neighborhood. When officers arrived, they found Smith suffering from gunshot wounds. He was still alive when emergency responders reached him, and he was rushed to a hospital, but he did not survive his injuries.
The shooting unfolded in the fading
daylight of a Saturday afternoon, turning a residential block into the center of a homicide investigation. Early reports from the scene indicated that Smith may have been shot in the head, though police publicly described the injuries more generally as gunshot wounds. The basic timeline released by police placed the shooting at about 4:53 p.m., with officers locating Smith on West 30th Street and medical personnel transporting him for emergency care before he died.
Authorities identified Smith as the victim the following day as Wilmington police continued investigating the fatal shooting. Public reports did not describe a motive, the circumstances that led up to the gunfire, or whether Smith had been targeted. No suspect description was released in the immediate aftermath, and police did not announce any arrests at that time.
Available public reporting does not show that anyone has been arrested, charged, tried, or convicted in connection with Smith's killing. The case was described as under investigation, and police asked anyone with information to contact Detective Brian Conkey at the Wilmington Police Department. Gun violence tracking sources also list Smith as the person killed in the October 23, 2021 shooting on the 200 block of West 30th Street, but they do not identify a suspect or report an arrest.
