La'Hmeer Carter, a 20-year-old Black/African American man from New Castle, Delaware, was killed on the evening of January 12, 2015, in a double shooting at the Vinings at Christiana Apartments on Vinings Way in Newark. Although some records associate the case with the Bear area, contemporary reporting and New Castle County police records identify Carter and the other victim as residents of New Castle and place the shooting at the Newark apartment complex.
At approximately 7:18 p.m., New Castle County police officers were dispatched to the apartment community after receiving a report that shots had been fired. Residents described hearing a sudden series of gunshots in the normally occupied residential complex, where numerous families and children were inside nearby apartments. One resident recalled hearing the initial noise, muting the television, and then hearing several additional shots.
When officers arrived, they discovered two seriously wounded men in different areas of the complex. Carter was found in the area of the 900 block of Vinings Way, while 32-year-old Brian Eller was located near the 700 block. Both had suffered gunshot wounds and died as a result of their injuries. Contemporary news coverage reported that the men had been shot multiple times.
The shooting prompted an extensive police response. Crime-scene personnel began processing the area, a police dog was brought in, and detectives canvassed the apartment community and spoke with residents in an effort to determine what had happened and who was responsible. Family members and others arrived at the scene as word of the shooting spread. Residents described the fear created by the gunfire, particularly because children and other families had been only a short distance from where the violence occurred.
During the initial investigation, police did not publicly identify a suspect. Authorities also did not announce a confirmed motive for the killings. Although investigators spoke with residents about activity in and around the apartment complex, publicly available law-enforcement information has not established that Carter or Eller was targeted for any particular publicly disclosed reason.
The investigation remained unresolved in the years that followed. New Castle County police later transferred the double homicide into its cold-case review process and repeatedly renewed appeals for information about Carter's and Eller's deaths. Police publicized the case again in 2021 and 2023, emphasizing that investigators were still trying to identify the person or persons responsible and that a cash reward was available for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
On January 12, 2026, exactly eleven years after the killings, the New Castle County Division of Police again highlighted the case as an unsolved cold-case homicide. Investigators continued to list Carter as having been found near 900 Vinings Way and Eller near 700 Vinings Way after officers responded to the shooting. The department stated that its Criminal Investigations Unit and Cold Case Unit remained actively interested in information capable of advancing the investigation.
As of the latest publicly available law-enforcement information, no suspect has been publicly named, no arrest has been announced, and no one has been charged, tried, or convicted in connection with the killings of La'Hmeer Carter and Brian Eller. The case remains listed among New Castle County's unsolved homicides, with investigators continuing to ask anyone with information about the January 2015 shooting to come forward.
