Michael Reams, a 28-year-old Black / African American male, was killed in Wilmington, Delaware, on the afternoon of December 10, 2020. The violence unfolded around 1:20 p.m. in the 300 block of East 23rd Street, where a Wilmington police officer on proactive patrol heard gunfire and moved toward the sound. As the officer approached, the scene was still active and chaotic, with people reacting to shots fired on a busy city street.
Police said the officer saw Dashan Perrigan of Newark
running from the area with a firearm in his hand. Perrigan tried to discard the handgun, but the officer took him into custody moments after the shooting and recovered the weapon. Additional officers found Reams suffering from gunshot wounds. He was taken to a hospital, but he died from his injuries.
Court records later described Reams as an innocent bystander who had been on the sidewalk when Perrigan recklessly fired several shots into a crowd. One of those bullets struck Reams in the abdomen. What began as a sudden burst of gunfire on East 23rd Street became a murder case almost immediately, with police making an arrest within minutes rather than searching for an unknown suspect over days or weeks.
Perrigan was initially charged with first-degree murder, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, possession of a firearm by a person prohibited, receiving a stolen firearm, and resisting arrest. He was arraigned and held at the Howard R. Young Correctional Institution on cash-only bail reported at more than $1 million. Officials said the quick arrest was tied to the officer's immediate response, the recovery of the handgun, and later witness identification of Perrigan as the shooter.
On April 27, 2022, Perrigan pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. As part of the plea, prosecutors agreed to recommend no more than 25 years in prison, but the court was not bound by that recommendation. On July 22, 2022, Perrigan was sentenced to 50 years at Level V incarceration, suspended after 25 years, for the murder charge, followed by decreasing levels of probation, and an additional 5 years at Level V for the firearm offense. That made the prison portion of the sentence 30 years.
Perrigan challenged the sentence, arguing over the plea and the fact that the judge imposed more time than the prosecution had recommended. The Delaware Supreme Court later affirmed the Superior Court's judgment, leaving the sentence in place. Reams' case, first reported as a fatal daytime shooting on a Wilmington block, ultimately ended with the identified shooter convicted by guilty plea and sentenced to decades in prison.
