Keith Barron Mason, a 24-year-old Black/African American man from Wilmington, Delaware, was fatally shot on January 12, 2015, in what authorities described as Wilmington's first homicide of the year. The shooting unfolded at about 6:30 p.m. in the 200 block of West 23rd Street. Police responding to the scene found that Mason had been struck by multiple gunshots, turning an ordinary Monday evening in the neighborhood into the scene of the city's first deadly act of gun violence of 2015.
The initial police investigation was publicly described only in limited detail. Authorities confirmed that the victim had been shot several times, but early news coverage did not report what led to the gunfire, whether Mason had been approached by one person or several people, or whether investigators believed the shooting was targeted. No description of a gunman, getaway vehicle, weapon, or suspected motive was released in the reporting located. Police treated the shooting as a homicide and began investigating the circumstances surrounding Mason's death.
The killing quickly became part of a troubling beginning to the year in Wilmington. Just days afterward, another fatal shooting occurred only a short distance away. The Wilmington Peacekeepers, a community organization involved in anti-violence outreach, announced that it would hold a street meeting on January 17 at 23rd and Washington Streets to support a member whose grandson had been killed during the preceding week. The organization specifically linked its announcement to reporting about Wilmington's first fatal shooting of the year and noted that another nearby shooting had also become a homicide. The gathering reflected how Mason's death affected not only his immediate family but members of the surrounding community already trying to confront gun violence.
Mason left behind three children, Taylor Griffin, Ja'haad White and Eh'san Mason, as well as his parents, Dawn Mason and Keith Morris, stepparents, siblings and a large extended family. His family held a Celebration of Life on January 21, 2015, at New Destiny Fellowship Church on East 16th Street in Wilmington. He was laid to rest at Silverbrook Cemetery.
Available public reporting does not identify a named suspect in Mason's killing and does not document an arrest, criminal charge, trial or conviction connected specifically to the January 12 shooting. The publicly accessible accounts located focus primarily on the circumstances of the shooting and its significance as Wilmington's first homicide of 2015. Without publicly documented charges or a subsequent court case tied to Mason's death, the identity of the person or persons responsible and the motive behind the shooting remain unclear in the available reporting.
