Nadine T. Midgette, a 36-year-old Black woman, was fatally shot during the early morning hours of September 13, 2019, on Wilmington’s East Side. At approximately 12:28 a.m., Wilmington police officers were dispatched to the 900 block of Bennett Street after receiving reports of gunfire. When officers arrived, they found Midgette suffering from gunshot wounds.
Emergency personnel transported her from the residential neighborhood to a local hospital, where medical staff attempted to save
her life. Her injuries proved fatal, and she was pronounced dead shortly after the shooting. Wilmington police publicly identified her several days later as the woman killed in the Bennett Street attack.
Detectives began investigating the circumstances surrounding the gunfire, but the limited public accounts did not describe what Midgette had been doing immediately before she was shot, whether she had been specifically targeted, or whether an argument, robbery, or other confrontation preceded the violence. Authorities also did not publicly disclose how many shots were fired, whether witnesses saw the gunman, or whether investigators recovered a weapon or other physical evidence from the scene.
Midgette’s death occurred on an exceptionally violent day in Wilmington. Later that same morning, two men were killed in a separate shooting near Fifth and Monroe streets. Police treated the incidents as separate investigations, and no publicly available information established that Midgette’s killing was connected to the later double homicide.
Her family and community laid her to rest following a viewing and funeral service at Congo Funeral Home’s North Chapel on September 29. Burial took place the following morning at Silverbrook Cemetery. Memorial messages remembered her affectionately and reflected the lasting grief left among those who knew her.
No credible public announcement has identified a suspect in Midgette’s killing. Available reporting also does not show that anyone was arrested, charged, tried, or convicted for her death. The homicide has continued to be described publicly as unsolved, leaving unanswered who opened fire on Bennett Street, what motivated the attack, and why Midgette was killed.
