Michael Jamar Givens Sr., a 27-year-old Black man, died in Wilmington, Delaware, on March 8, 2016. Known to relatives and friends as “App,” he was born in York, Pennsylvania, and had previously lived in Coatesville before making his home in Wilmington. His death occurred one day before his twenty-eighth birthday.
Two memorial images circulate with conflicting dates.
One lists his life dates as March 9, 1988, through March 8, 2016, while the other reverses the dates and gives March 8, 1988, through March 9, 2016. The second version appears to contain a transposition error. The funeral home obituary identifies his date of death as March 8, 2016, states that he was 27, and displays his birth date as March 9, 1988. The Daily Local obituary, a later memorial notice, a burial memorial, and a gun-violence memorial also identify March 8, 2016, as the date of his death. The March 9, 1988, to March 8, 2016, date range is therefore the version most consistently supported by the available records and is also the only one consistent with his reported age.
The publicly available accounts provide limited verified information about the circumstances surrounding Givens’s death. Memorial records classify it as a firearm-related death in Wilmington, but the accessible funeral and newspaper notices do not describe the location of the shooting, the events leading to it, a possible motive, or the person responsible. Without a reliable law-enforcement announcement or detailed contemporary news report, additional descriptions of the incident cannot be treated as established fact.
Givens was remembered as someone who loved basketball, football, and music. He was the father of two children, Michael Givens Jr. and Mackenzie Givens. He also left behind his parents, a sister, three brothers, his grandfather, and numerous other relatives and friends. His funeral was held on March 18, 2016, at the First Baptist Church of Passtown in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, followed by burial at Lebanon Cemetery in York.
No reliable publicly accessible source identifies a suspect or records an arrest specifically connected to Givens’s death. The available records likewise do not document charges, an indictment, a guilty plea, a trial, a conviction, or a sentence arising from the case. Although an online case listing has labeled the homicide solved, it does not provide verifiable information naming the responsible person or explaining how the case was resolved. The public record therefore confirms Givens’s death and memorial arrangements but leaves the identity and legal outcome of any suspect unclear.
