Khalif Friend, a 35-year-old Black man from Wilmington, Delaware, was found fatally wounded on the morning of May 7, 2018. Shortly before 7:30 a.m., Wilmington police were sent to the 700 block of East Fifth Street after receiving a report that gunfire had struck a parked vehicle. When officers arrived, they discovered Friend unresponsive and slumped over the steering wheel in the driver’s seat. He had suffered a gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead at the scene.
What began as a report of a bullet-damaged automobile quickly became a homicide investigation. The shooting appeared to have occurred while Friend was inside the vehicle, but publicly available reporting did not establish how long the car had been parked, whether he had been waiting for someone, or whether the gunman approached on foot or fired from another vehicle. Authorities also did not publicly disclose a motive, describe any recovered weapon, identify possible witnesses, or release a description of the person responsible.
No arrest was announced in the immediate aftermath of Friend’s killing, and the available public reporting does not identify a suspect or person of interest. There is likewise no publicly documented prosecution, trial, conviction, or sentence connected to his death. With no named suspect and no disclosed motive, the case remained an unresolved Wilmington homicide in the information available online.
