Shaiquen “Buda” Shamir Brown is identified in the available case information as a 20-year-old Black/African American male from Wilmington, Delaware, with a reported date of death of September 4, 2015. However, a review of publicly accessible online news archives, Wilmington Police material, Delaware Department of Justice releases, court records, and other searchable sources did not locate a reliable contemporaneous report confirming that Brown was killed on that date or describing the
circumstances of his death.
The date is particularly difficult to reconcile with the publicly available record of violence in Wilmington. Court records show that a significant shooting incident did occur in Wilmington on September 4, 2015, at the Adams Four Shopping Center. Wilmington Police Officer Jesse Russell was working security there when he heard gunfire and saw Mark Grayson apparently firing a weapon. Russell pursued Grayson and apprehended him after a short foot chase. Six spent shell casings were recovered, and gunshot residue was detected on Grayson’s hands. Grayson was later convicted of reckless endangering, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, resisting arrest, and possession of a firearm by a person prohibited. Public court and Department of Justice accounts of that incident, however, do not identify Shaiquen Brown as a victim and do not describe anyone as having been killed during the shooting.
The available Wilmington homicide information from September 2015 also documents other killings, including the fatal shooting of Hassan Brown several days later. Hassan Brown was shot in the 500 block of North Madison Street, and witnesses eventually identified Khalil Seals as the shooter. Seals pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was later sentenced to 15 years in prison. Those official records clearly identify Hassan Brown and the prosecution arising from his death, but they do not connect that case to Shaiquen Brown.
There is also conflicting online information associated with the name Shaiquen Brown. A publicly searchable inmate-profile service lists a person named Shaiquen Brown under Delaware Department of Correction inmate number 00684579 and describes him as having been held at the Howard R. Young Correctional Institution in Wilmington. The page does not provide enough identifying information to establish whether that individual is the same Shaiquen Shamir Brown referenced in the reported 2015 death, so it would be unsafe to treat the record as proof that the death information is incorrect. It does, however, create sufficient uncertainty that the reported homicide should not be presented as verified without additional documentation.
No reliable online source located in the available searches names a suspect in Shaiquen Brown’s reported death, describes an arrest for killing him, or documents murder charges, a trial, a guilty plea, or a conviction associated with his name. Likewise, the Wilmington Police Department’s publicly available cold-case material does not identify a 2015 homicide victim named Shaiquen Brown. Based on the accessible online record, the reported September 4, 2015 death and any criminal investigation connected specifically to Shaiquen “Buda” Shamir Brown remain unverified, and attributing the killing to Mark Grayson or any other known Wilmington defendant would go beyond what the available evidence supports.
