Lymond Moses, a 30-year-old Black male from Bear, Delaware, died in Wilmington on January 13, 2021, after a late-night encounter with New Castle County police in the area of Rosemont Avenue and East 24th Street. In the early morning darkness, officers were patrolling the Riverside neighborhood because of concerns about stolen vehicles reportedly being used in shootings and robberies.
They came upon Moses in a rental Nissan Altima, apparently asleep behind the wheel with the engine running and interior lights on.
The encounter began as a welfare-style check but quickly became tense. Officers Roberto Ieradi, Robert Ellis, and Sean Sweeney-Jones approached the car, opened the doors, and gave Moses commands after waking him. According to investigative findings, Moses appeared confused and disoriented, told officers his car was not stolen, said he was near his mother’s house, and did not want to get out of the vehicle. Officers said they saw marijuana in the front console but told him they were not concerned about “just weed” and wanted him to step out to make sure he was okay.
Instead, Moses restarted the car and drove away. The officers returned to their patrol vehicles and pursued him down Rosemont Avenue, which ended in a dead end. Moses began turning the car around as the officers caught up to him. The officers got out with their guns drawn and shouted commands for him to stop. Within seconds, Moses accelerated forward, veering in an apparent attempt to get past the officers and escape.
Officer Ieradi fired seven shots at Moses’ vehicle as it moved forward and then passed him. The fatal shot was determined to be the fourth shot, which struck Moses in the left side of the head. Corporal Ellis fired two additional shots moments later as the vehicle, with Moses wounded, veered toward his direction. Moses’ vehicle then struck a police SUV and stopped. Officers pulled him from the car and attempted aid, but he was pronounced dead at the scene at 1:25 a.m.
The official investigation found that Moses died from a single gunshot wound to the head. ShotSpotter data recorded nine total shots, with all shots fired in less than three seconds. Vehicle data showed the Nissan accelerating from a stop to roughly 23 miles per hour before the crash. Investigators also noted that Ellis’ two shots did not strike Moses, making Ieradi’s fourth shot the one most closely tied to his death.
No suspects were arrested in Moses’ death, and no criminal charges were filed against the officers involved. Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings’ office reviewed the case, along with an outside legal team, and concluded that prosecutors could not establish a reasonable likelihood of convicting any of the officers under the law in effect at the time. The review said Ieradi and Ellis could argue they believed the vehicle posed a serious danger to themselves or other officers, even though the report also raised serious concerns about police training, tactics, and shooting at moving vehicles.
The case did not end with the criminal review. Moses’ family filed a civil lawsuit against New Castle County, the police department, and the officers, alleging wrongful death, excessive force, reckless conduct, constitutional violations, and failures in police training and policy. The family and their attorneys argued that Moses was trying to flee rather than run officers over and that the shooting was unnecessary. They pointed to body-camera footage and disputed the police department’s initial framing of the encounter.
In 2023, New Castle County agreed to a $1.05 million settlement connected to the fatal shooting. As part of that settlement, claims against the three officers were dismissed. The officers avoided criminal prosecution, but they were reportedly disciplined for policy-related issues, including failing to notify Wilmington police that they were entering city jurisdiction, issues involving the reporting of the chase and traffic stop, and failure to activate a body camera at the start of the interaction with Moses.
