Shalita Middleton, a 17-year-old Black female, was a first-semester freshman at Delaware State University in Dover when gunfire shattered the quiet around 1 a.m. on September 21, 2007. Near the campus dining spot known as the Village Café, shots struck Middleton in the abdomen and wounded fellow freshman Nathaniel Pugh in the ankle. The campus went into lockdown as police searched for the shooter, and Middleton—gravely injured—was rushed to Christiana Hospital in Newark, where she remained
hospitalized for weeks. She never regained consciousness and died on October 23, 2007, her family saying the internal injuries were too severe to overcome.
In the days after the shooting, investigators focused on 18-year-old freshman Loyer D. Braden, who was arrested on September 24 and charged with attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment, and a firearms offense; after Middleton’s death, a grand jury upgraded one charge to second-degree murder. Authorities said Braden had left campus after the shooting and returned before his arrest; when led into court, he told reporters, “I’m sorry.” He was ordered to stay away from the campus and potential witnesses while the case moved forward.
Nearly two years later, the case collapsed. In May 2009 a judge dismissed all charges after finding that prosecutors had withheld crucial evidence, including an eyewitness account indicating two men with dreadlocks and white T-shirts were the gunmen and not Braden. The Delaware Department of Justice subsequently said that, in light of the new information, it would not proceed to trial. No one else has been charged in connection with the shooting that killed Middleton and injured Pugh, leaving the crime without a definitive resolution.
