Curtis Gregory, a 30-year-old Black man from Wilmington, was killed late on Sunday, June 24, 2018, when gunfire erupted near Eighth and Broom streets. At approximately 11:40 p.m., Wilmington police received an automated alert reporting shots in the 700 block of Broom Street. Officers converged on the residential neighborhood and found Gregory at the intersection, suffering from at least one gunshot wound.
New Castle County paramedics responded, but his injuries were fatal, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
The shooting occurred close to Tilton Park during the final minutes of the weekend. Gregory appears to have been alone and critically wounded by the time officers reached him. Some contemporaneous accounts indicated that he had been shot multiple times, including wounds to the head, although the initial official information released by police confirmed only that he had sustained at least one gunshot wound. Investigators secured the area around the intersection and began treating the death as a homicide, searching the scene for physical evidence and information that could explain who had fired the shots and why.
Police did not immediately identify Gregory publicly while relatives were being notified. He was subsequently named as a Wilmington resident, and the investigation remained active. Authorities did not release a description of a suspected shooter, identify a possible motive, or disclose whether witnesses had seen anyone leaving the area. The limited information made public offered no account of an argument, confrontation, robbery, or other event preceding the gunfire.
No arrest, named suspect, criminal charge, trial, or conviction connected to Gregory's killing was reported in the publicly available police and news coverage reviewed. The early reports described the case as an ongoing investigation and indicated that no further details were immediately available. Later memorial information continued to list Gregory as having been lost to gun violence in Wilmington without identifying anyone as responsible for his death.
