Brian A. Eller, a 32-year-old White/Caucasian man from New Castle, Delaware, was killed on the evening of January 12, 2015, in a double shooting at the Vinings at Christiana Apartments in the Newark area. At approximately 7:18 p.m., New Castle County police officers were dispatched to the apartment complex after receiving a report that gunfire had erupted along Vinings Way.
When officers reached the sprawling residential complex, they discovered two shooting victims in separate areas.
La’Hmeer Carter was found near the 900 block of Vinings Way, while Eller was located near the 700 block. Both had suffered gunshot wounds and died from their injuries. Contemporary news coverage reported that the victims had been shot several times.
The sudden violence alarmed residents throughout the apartment community. People living nearby described hearing a series of gunshots, with families remaining inside as police converged on the scene. Investigators began processing the area shortly afterward, and a police dog and crime-unit personnel were among those involved as detectives spoke with residents and searched for evidence. Family members also arrived at the complex as word of the shooting spread.
At the beginning of the investigation, police said no suspects had been identified publicly. Authorities did not announce an arrest or provide a description of the person or people believed responsible. The circumstances that brought Eller and Carter to the locations where they were found, the motive for the shooting, and the identity of the shooter or shooters were not publicly established in the initial reports.
Years passed without a publicly announced resolution. New Castle County police later classified the deaths of Eller and Carter among the department’s unsolved homicide cases and repeatedly returned attention to the investigation. In a 2021 cold-case review, investigators said they were continuing efforts to resolve the case and offered a cash reward for information that could assist the investigation or lead to an arrest and conviction. The department again publicized the case in 2023 in hopes that renewed attention might generate information from someone with knowledge of the killings.
On January 12, 2026, exactly eleven years after the shooting, the New Castle County Police Department again issued a cold-case notice regarding the deaths. Investigators reiterated that Eller had been found in the 700 block of Vinings Way and Carter in the 900 block and said the department's Cold Case Unit continued working to resolve the homicide. The case also remains included on New Castle County's official list of cold cases.
No suspect has been publicly named in the official updates located for the case, and no arrest, criminal charge, trial, or conviction has been announced in connection with the killings. Investigators continue to seek information from anyone who may know what happened at the Vinings at Christiana Apartments that night, with Delaware Crime Stoppers offering a reward for information leading to an arrest. More than a decade after Eller and Carter were killed, their deaths remain an open double-homicide investigation.
