Tyreek Scott, a 15-year-old Black male, was killed during a late-night shooting in Wilmington, Delaware, on July 18, 2016. Shortly before midnight, gunfire shattered the quiet near the intersection of East 11th and Bennett streets. Wilmington police officers responding to the area found Tyreek suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Emergency personnel rushed him to a hospital, but the injuries were too severe, and he died soon afterward.
The killing left investigators with the difficult
task of determining who had targeted Tyreek and why. The shooting occurred during a period when Wilmington was struggling with repeated outbreaks of gun violence involving neighborhood groups and young people. In the immediate aftermath, police did not announce an arrest, and the case remained unresolved as detectives searched for witnesses and attempted to reconstruct what had happened in the moments leading up to the gunfire.
For more than two years, the investigation appeared to make little public progress. A major break came in late 2018, when Wilmington Police Detective Robert Fox located and interviewed several witnesses who had not previously been known to investigators. Information developed through those interviews led authorities to identify Dai'yann Wharton and Isaiah Baird as suspects in Tyreek's killing. The renewed investigation transformed what had been a long-unsolved homicide into a case prosecutors believed they could bring before a grand jury.
On April 1, 2019, a New Castle County grand jury indicted Wharton and Baird in connection with the shooting. The charges included first-degree murder, first-degree conspiracy, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and possession of a firearm by a person prohibited. Wharton was listed as 19 and Baird as 21 when the indictments were announced. Both were already incarcerated in connection with other criminal matters, allowing authorities to proceed without conducting a public search for either defendant.
Prosecutors characterized Tyreek's killing as connected to gang violence in Wilmington. Although the original indictments exposed both defendants to extremely serious penalties, the cases were ultimately resolved without either man receiving a life sentence. In October 2022, Wharton and Baird were each sentenced to 15 years in prison for their roles in the homicide. The sentences formally brought accountability in a case that had remained without arrests for years.
The outcome could not restore the life taken at the corner of 11th and Bennett streets, but it ended the uncertainty surrounding whether anyone would be held responsible. Tyreek's death became another painful example of how Wilmington's street violence reached children who had barely begun their lives. The eventual identification, prosecution and imprisonment of Wharton and Baird showed how witness cooperation and continued detective work could revive a homicide investigation long after its trail initially appeared to have gone cold.
