Brandon Ryans, a 29-year-old African American man from Wilmington, Delaware, was shot and killed on July 16, 2015. His death was recorded as a fatal shooting in Wilmington, and the investigation would eventually identify the gunman and lead to a murder conviction. The shooting occurred at the corner of South Dupont Street and Lancaster Avenue.
Wilmington Police Detective Randall Nowell led the investigation into Ryans’s death.
Investigators obtained surveillance recordings from the surrounding area and worked with cooperating witnesses to establish who had carried out the shooting. Those sources of evidence helped police identify Lamere Wilmer-Williamson as the gunman.
The prosecution ultimately ended in a guilty plea rather than a murder trial. In January 2017, Wilmer-Williamson pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in connection with Ryans’s killing. Deputy Attorneys General Barzilai Axelrod and Periann Doko handled the prosecution and secured the resulting prison sentence.
On March 17, 2017, the Delaware Department of Justice announced that a Superior Court judge had sentenced Wilmer-Williamson to 20 years in prison. The sentence also required six months of either home confinement or work release after imprisonment, followed by two years of probation. The announcement confirmed his responsibility for the fatal shooting but did not describe a motive or the circumstances immediately preceding the gunfire.
