Thomas Gilbert, a 32-year-old Black/African American male from the Dover area, was killed in the early morning hours of July 6, 2020, in Dover, Delaware. Around 2:48 a.m., Dover police were sent to the 100 block of South New Street after reports of shots fired. When officers reached the vacant lot, they found Gilbert suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
He was pronounced dead at the scene, leaving investigators to piece together what had happened in the quiet hours before dawn.
The investigation soon focused on Tysheen Maxwell, who was 25 at the time. Dover police identified Maxwell as a suspect in Gilbert's killing, and on July 24, 2020, the United States Marshals Service located and arrested him in Newport News, Virginia. Police said he was taken into custody without incident. After the arrest, Maxwell remained in custody while awaiting extradition back to Delaware.
Maxwell was charged with first-degree murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony in connection with Gilbert's death. Publicly available reports centered on the arrest and pending extradition, but they did not provide a detailed account of the motive, the circumstances leading up to the shooting, or a later trial, conviction, or sentencing outcome. The case was presented by police as a homicide that began with a shots-fired call and quickly became a murder investigation after Gilbert was found dead in the vacant lot on South New Street.
