Rashaad Izil Wisher was an 18-year-old Black male whose life ended in a burst of gunfire on the night of July 8, 2018, in Wilmington, Delaware. At approximately 10:15 p.m., Wilmington police officers were dispatched to the 2600 block of Jessup Street after receiving a report that shots had been fired. When officers arrived, they found Wisher gravely wounded, with a gunshot injury to his chest or upper torso.
Emergency personnel rushed him to Christiana Hospital in critical condition, but medical efforts could not save him. He was pronounced dead later that night, and police began investigating the shooting as a homicide.
Wisher was born in Wilmington on February 29, 2000, and was affectionately known to those closest to him as “Pop-Pop.” He attended schools in the Brandywine School District, where he was remembered as someone who was well liked by his teachers. His family described him as kind, quiet, obedient and respectful—a young person who largely kept to himself and did not participate in gangs or other harmful activities. Those descriptions stood in painful contrast to the violent circumstances in which his life was taken.
The loss struck a family that was already grieving. Wisher had been particularly close to his brother Raquis, who had died on May 31, 2018, less than six weeks before Wisher was killed. The two were said to have spent a great deal of time together, and Wisher's death forced loved ones to endure another funeral only a short time after burying his brother. He left behind his parents, siblings and an extended family who remembered him not through the circumstances of his death, but through the affection, respect and quiet nature he showed during his life.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, investigators appealed to the public for help determining who fired the fatal shot and why. Detective Devon Jones was identified as the investigator to contact, and information could also be submitted through Delaware Crime Stoppers. Contemporary reports did not disclose that police had recovered a weapon, identified a getaway vehicle, established a motive or developed a publicly named person of interest. They also did not describe whether Wisher had been deliberately targeted, caught in a confrontation or struck under some other set of circumstances.
No reliable public reporting located for the case identifies an arrest, criminal charge, prosecution, trial or conviction connected to Wisher's killing. No suspect has been publicly named in the available reports, leaving the identity of the person responsible undisclosed and the reason for the shooting unanswered. The public record therefore continues to tell the story of a young Wilmington resident whose life ended suddenly on Jessup Street, while his family has been left without the fuller explanation and courtroom resolution that might bring some measure of accountability.
