Melvin Orlando Collins, a 26-year-old Black/African American male, was killed in the early morning hours of October 24, 2020, after gunfire broke out at the Shoppes of Village Square shopping center on Marrows Road in Newark, Delaware. The shooting was reported around 12:47 to 12:50 a.m., sending New Castle County Police and other responding agencies to the shopping center. When officers arrived, they found multiple gunshot victims.
Collins was discovered fatally wounded outside Bob’s Famous Tavern and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The scene unfolded in a public parking lot that quickly became an active homicide investigation. Reports from the morning described police tape around the side of Bob’s Tavern, investigators marking shell casings with evidence tags, and rescue crews responding after dispatchers received reports that more than one person had been shot. Early information suggested as many as three people may have been struck, but authorities later confirmed Collins had died and another man had been hit by gunfire.
Detectives from the New Castle County Division of Police Criminal Investigations Unit took over the case. Police later said the second wounded man had been transported to a local hospital and was listed in stable condition. Investigators were still working to determine who fired the shots, and the motive for the violence had not been established in the public reports.
Collins was later remembered in obituary information as Melvin Orlando Collins Jr., born November 1, 1993, and affectionately known to family and friends as “Luv.” He had attended Marion T. Academy Charter School in Wilmington and graduated from Pencader Charter High School. He was described as academically accomplished, employed as a supervisor with Allied Security, involved with “All Love No Hate” apparel, and deeply connected to his family, friends, and young son.
No suspect was publicly identified in the available reports, and no arrest, trial, plea, or conviction information was found in the online sources reviewed. At the time of the public police updates, authorities asked anyone with information to contact Detective Michael McNasby or submit tips through Crime Stoppers, the New Castle County Police app, or the department’s Facebook page.
