Shareef Hamilton, a 21-year-old Black / African American male, was killed late on September 23, 2020, after a night stop at the Dash In gas station convenience store in the 1000 block of Delaware Avenue in Wilmington, Delaware. Police were called to the area around 11:47 p.m., where they found Hamilton suffering from gunshot wounds. He was taken to a hospital, but he died from his injuries.
The shooting unfolded outside the store.
According to court records, Hamilton had gone to the Dash In with Leland Stanley and two others. While they were inside, a dark-colored SUV with two stickers on the back window drove through the parking lot with its windows down, drawing attention from the group. Hamilton and Stanley later walked outside and were standing near the business when two people approached on foot and opened fire. Hamilton was hit by multiple bullets, while Stanley escaped without being shot. The shooters ran back to a waiting vehicle and fled.
Investigators recovered six spent 9mm shell casings, a 9mm projectile, and a spent. 380 caliber casing from the scene. Three 9mm projectiles were also recovered from Hamilton's body. Ballistics later tied the 9mm casings and projectiles to a 9mm Smith & Wesson firearm that was found in Maryland, while the. 380-caliber weapon was not recovered. Surveillance cameras captured the incident, and two people who had been outside the store panhandling also witnessed the shooting.
The case later became part of a much larger investigation into NorthPak, described by Delaware prosecutors as a violent Wilmington-area gang connected to multiple shootings, murders, and attempted murders between 2018 and 2021. In June 2021, Delaware officials announced more than 120 charges against 14 alleged NorthPak members. Shareef Hamilton's killing was one of six murders prosecutors attributed to members of the group.
Elijah Coffield was one of the central defendants tied to Hamilton's death. Prosecutors charged him with first-degree murder in the killings of Ollier Henry and Shareef Hamilton, along with attempted murder, conspiracy, firearm offenses, reckless endangering, and illegal gang participation. At trial, a former NorthPak member testified that Coffield said he had been with Markel Richards and J'Shawn Edwards during the Dash In shooting. According to that testimony, Richards drove, while Coffield and Edwards got out of the car and fired at the people outside the store. The testimony also described Edwards as eager to take part in a shooting to build his reputation within NorthPak.
In March 2023, a New Castle County jury convicted Coffield of two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Ollier Henry and Shareef Hamilton, as well as five counts of first-degree attempted murder, reckless endangering, multiple firearm charges, conspiracy charges, and illegal gang participation. Coffield was later sentenced on August 11, 2023, to life imprisonment for each murder conviction, along with many additional decades in prison for the other offenses. His appeal was later rejected except for a correction to part of the sentencing record involving firearm-possession counts.
Additional charges were brought as the investigation continued. In January 2023, Delaware prosecutors announced new charges against Coffield, J'Shawn Edwards, and Markel Richards. Edwards and Richards were both charged with first-degree murder in connection with Hamilton's killing. Edwards was also charged in the attempted murder of Sakai Clark from the same month, along with firearm, conspiracy, reckless endangering, prohibited firearm possession, and illegal gang participation charges. Richards faced first-degree murder, firearm, conspiracy, reckless endangering, and illegal gang participation charges connected to Hamilton's death.
By February 2024, Edwards had become the third person sentenced in connection with Hamilton's killing. Online reporting identified him as having pleaded guilty to manslaughter, gang participation, conspiracy, and weapons-related charges in the September 2020 murder outside the Wilmington gas station. The available online source snippet confirms that he was sentenced to prison, though it does not provide the full sentence length in the accessible text.
The case that began as a late-night shooting outside a neighborhood gas station grew into one piece of a broader NorthPak prosecution. What first appeared in police reports as a fatal shooting in a quiet section of Delaware Avenue later became part of a larger account of retaliation, stolen cars, surveillance footage, ballistics evidence, social media evidence, and testimony from former gang members. Through those proceedings, prosecutors identified Coffield, Edwards, and Richards as participants or charged suspects in the attack that ended Shareef Hamilton's life.
