Stephanie Gill, a 38-year-old Black/African American female from Smyrna, Delaware, was killed on Tuesday morning, April 27, 2021, in a violent incident that began in the parking lot of Smyrna Middle School and later widened into a double homicide investigation. That morning, Stephanie and her husband, 47-year-old Llewellyn Gill of Hartly, Delaware, arrived at the school in her vehicle to pick up their daughter for a medical appointment.
What should have been an ordinary family errand turned into a confrontation outside the car.
Investigators said Stephanie and Llewellyn became involved in a verbal argument in the school parking lot at 700 Duck Creek Parkway. The dispute escalated when Llewellyn allegedly pulled Stephanie back into the vehicle, produced a weapon, and shot her. Emergency responders and law enforcement were called to the school around 10:26 a.m., and Stephanie was pronounced dead at the scene. The school was placed on lockdown while authorities searched for the suspect, and officials reported that no students or staff members were injured.
After the shooting, Llewellyn Gill fled the school parking lot alone in the same vehicle he and Stephanie had arrived in, then switched into another vehicle registered to him that had been parked nearby. Delaware State Police located his vehicle around 11:02 a.m. near Route 13 and Route 42, and a pursuit began. The chase crossed into Maryland, where police said Llewellyn shot himself and crashed near Galena. He was taken to a hospital in Maryland and pronounced dead.
As investigators continued working through the events surrounding Stephanie’s death, they learned there may have been another victim connected to the case. Police conducted a welfare check at the McLane Gardens apartment complex in Smyrna, where they found 21-year-old Deanna Dominick-Dalton of Clayton, Delaware, dead inside a residence with apparent gunshot wounds. Authorities described her as an acquaintance of Stephanie Gill. Her death became part of the same double homicide investigation.
Police identified Llewellyn Gill as the suspect in Stephanie Gill’s killing and as the suspected person responsible for Deanna Dominick-Dalton’s death. Because Llewellyn died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound following the pursuit, there were no arrests, criminal charges, trial, or conviction. Authorities described the case as a suspected murder-suicide and said there was no ongoing threat to the public, though the Delaware State Police Homicide Unit continued investigating the circumstances and asked anyone with information to contact investigators.
