Keshall “KeKe” Anderson was a 19-year-old Black woman from Wilmington, Delaware. Shortly after midnight on September 18, 2016, she was walking in the area of the 200 block of West 20th Street when gunfire erupted from a passing vehicle. Anderson was struck in the back. Emergency responders transported her to Christiana Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
A male companion who had been walking nearby was also shot, suffering wounds to his leg and buttocks, but his injuries were not considered life-threatening.
Investigators described the violence as a drive-by shooting and said Anderson did not appear to have been the intended target. She had been caught in the gunfire as she walked down the street, becoming Wilmington’s eighteenth gun-violence death of 2016. The shooting left her family demanding justice and searching for an explanation for why a young mother and apparent bystander had been killed.
The investigation eventually focused on two Wilmington teenagers, Abdullah Brown and Deonta Carney, who were both 16 at the time of the shooting. Police obtained arrest warrants after developing the boys as suspects. By the time they were formally charged in Anderson’s death, both were already being held at the New Castle County Detention Center on unrelated matters. A New Castle County grand jury indicted them in December 2016.
Brown and Carney were each charged with first-degree murder in Anderson’s killing, attempted first-degree murder for the shooting of her companion, first-degree conspiracy, two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and two counts of possession of a firearm by a person prohibited. Each was held on $1 million cash bail while the case proceeded.
Their first joint trial began in April 2018 but ended without a final resolution when the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict, resulting in a mistrial. Rather than face a second murder trial, Brown and Carney entered guilty pleas in January 2019 to reduced charges connected to the shooting. Brown pleaded guilty to manslaughter and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Public reports said both defendants accepted plea agreements involving manslaughter and firearm offenses, establishing their criminal responsibility for the gunfire that killed Anderson even though neither was convicted by a jury of the original first-degree murder charge.
The gun used in the shooting was later traced to a purchase made at a Cabela’s store near Christiana Mall on July 28, 2016. According to allegations in a civil lawsuit filed by Anderson’s family, Brilena Hardwick bought an Iberia Firearms JCP. 40-caliber pistol and ammunition while her boyfriend, John Kuligowski, waited outside. Kuligowski was a convicted felon who was legally prohibited from purchasing or possessing a firearm. The family alleged that Hardwick acted as a straw purchaser and transferred the weapon to Kuligowski, who then served as a conduit through which the gun entered the illegal market. Authorities alleged that Brown and Carney later obtained the pistol despite being juveniles and prohibited from legally purchasing or possessing it.
No publicly available reporting reviewed for the case indicates that Hardwick or Kuligowski was arrested or criminally charged in connection with Anderson’s death or the alleged straw purchase. The family instead pursued civil claims against Cabela’s, arguing that the retailer had negligently allowed the transaction. A Delaware court dismissed the lawsuit under the firearm-dealer protections in effect at the time, and the dismissal was upheld on appeal.
Anderson’s death later became part of a broader effort to change Delaware’s firearm laws. Her family advocated for stronger penalties for straw purchases and greater accountability when firearms are sold under suspicious circumstances. Delaware lawmakers eventually named the Keshall “KeKe” Anderson Safe Firearm Sales Act in her memory, citing her death as the consequence of a weapon allegedly purchased by a straw buyer, transferred to a prohibited person and ultimately placed in the hands of two teenagers who used it in the drive-by shooting.
