Tavyon M. Sykes, an 18-year-old Black male from Greenwood, Delaware, was fatally shot on the afternoon of January 25, 2018, near Bridgeville. At approximately 1:41 p.m., Delaware State Police learned that a shooting victim had been transported by a private vehicle to Nanticoke Memorial Hospital in Seaford. Sykes had suffered a gunshot wound and died from his injuries at the hospital.
Investigators determined that the shooting had occurred northwest of Bridgeville, near the intersection
of Newton Road and Adams Road. Detectives began reconstructing what had happened before Sykes was brought to the hospital, treating the case as a homicide and working to identify the person responsible. The investigation soon focused on Jared C. Mitchell of Greenwood.
On January 26, the day after the shooting, detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Mitchell. He was initially wanted on charges of first-degree murder, two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, reckless endangering, and two counts of possession of a firearm by a person prohibited. Delaware State Police publicly identified Mitchell as the suspect and appealed for information about his whereabouts.
Mitchell remained wanted for approximately two months. In March 2018, authorities in Accomack County, Virginia, located and arrested him in the Horntown area on unrelated drug charges. Delaware investigators were notified of his capture, and Mitchell was held while arrangements were made to return him to Delaware to face prosecution in connection with Sykes's death.
The case was ultimately resolved without a jury trial. In May 2019, Mitchell pleaded guilty to manslaughter, first-degree reckless endangering, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. By entering the plea, Mitchell accepted criminal responsibility for the fatal shooting, although the final manslaughter conviction was less severe than the first-degree murder charge originally pursued by investigators.
A Delaware Superior Court judge sentenced Mitchell immediately after accepting the guilty plea. He received 12 years in prison, followed by six months of home confinement or work release and 10 years of probation. The conviction and sentence brought the criminal proceedings to a close more than a year after Sykes was taken from the Bridgeville shooting scene to the hospital, where efforts to save him were unsuccessful.
