McKenzie Horn, a 30-year-old White/Caucasian female from Wilmington, Delaware, was killed on the night of July 26, 2021, in a shooting that unfolded inside a home in the 1100 block of West 2nd Street. Police were called to the area at about 8:23 p.m. to 8:25 p.m. after reports that multiple people had been shot. What began as an emergency response quickly became a more dangerous and tense scene when dispatchers learned the suspected shooter might still be inside the property, leading police to
treat the incident as a barricaded subject situation.
When officers eventually entered the building, they found McKenzie and 19-year-old Jayda Reed suffering from fatal gunshot wounds. Both had died at the scene. A 12-year-old girl was also shot during the incident, but she survived and was taken to a hospital in stable condition. The violence left the home marked by two deaths, one wounded child, and the immediate realization that the shooting had likely happened within a domestic setting rather than as a random attack.
Authorities identified the suspected shooter as 32-year-old Robert Horn. He was found dead at the scene from what police described as an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Police said the case was believed to be domestic in nature, and available reports list Robert Horn as the suspect in the killings. Because he died at the scene, there were no reported arrests, criminal charges, trial proceedings, or conviction connected to McKenzie’s death.
McKenzie’s killing was part of a devastating murder-suicide that also claimed Jayda Reed’s life and left a young girl injured. The incident remained under investigation after the initial police release, with Wilmington Police asking anyone with information to contact Detective Steven Bender or provide information through Delaware Crime Stoppers.
