Police worry about retaliation, escalation

Delaware State News

DOVER — Martha Wright is worried about what might happen next.

The New Castle Avenue resident heard the gunshot that killed Dover resident Brandon L. Beard shortly after before 1 a.m. Saturday, less than a block from her Capitol Green home.

"I don’t even want to live out here," Ms. Wright said Monday afternoon. "At night, I take my 5-year-old son and we go to stay at a friend’s house outside the neighborhood.

"It’s frightening for my son to be out here. Anything can happen."

Police believe the fatal shooting is the product of a feud between two groups of young people who hang out in the Dover neighborhood and nearby Capitol Park, just outside city limits.

While Dover police spokesman Lt. James E. Hosfelt said there is no direct correlation between Saturday’s incident and an Aug. 5 shooting in Capitol Green in which a 31-year-old female bystander was wounded, he said the bad blood between the groups has simmered in the weeks since.

"I wouldn’t classify it as gang-related action," Lt. Hosfelt said. "It’s groups of people living in both neighborhoods and others … They’re groups of individuals that for whatever reason, whether it’s because they live in the same neighborhood or something else, associate with each other.

"Since (the Aug. 5 shooting) we’ve seen an increase in the altercations between the groups — fights and arguments. Very few, if any, have been reported to the police."

Details of those unreported incidents come from interviews with witnesses and others, Lt. Hosfelt said.

How the feud between the groups got started and exactly how many people are involved is unclear, but police are concerned that Saturday’s shooting might not be the last lashing out between the groups.

"There’s a definite concern about retaliation or retribution," Lt. Hosfelt said. "As we did after the August shooting, we will have an increased police presence in the neighborhood.

"We can increase our presence and stay in an area for a certain amount of time, but unfortunately, eventually we have to get back into what a police department does and protect the rest of the city, too. We can’t divert additional resources long-term to one area of the city."

Dover Mayor Carleton E. Carey Sr. said that an increased police presence can help deter crime and bring a community back to normal and give it a chance to recover.

But, he said, residents need to partner with police in preventing crime.

"Any time residents see a problem, we want them to call the police department," Mayor Carey said. "If there’s something going on or a stranger in the neighborhood or a group gathering, the police need to know that.

"We just can’t tolerate these types of things to take place."

The biggest challenge to cleaning up the neighborhood is getting rid of people who don’t belong there, said Ms. Wright, the New Castle Avenue resident.

"They need to make sure everybody out here lives here," she said. "People who hang out here don’t always live here. People who live here are on the leases."

With witnesses’ help, police arrested Brett Hoskins, 24, of Sandtown Road, Felton, Saturday night and charged him with first-degree murder and possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony in connection with the slaying of Mr. Beard.

He is being held without bond at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center near Smyrna.

Lt. Hosfelt said the victim was walking on New Castle Avenue in the Senate View neighborhood — which is inside Capitol Green — at about 12:45 a.m. when he was shot once "with a small-caliber weapon" in the chest.

Mr. Beard was transported to Bayhealth-Kent General Hospital in Dover for emergency treatment and later died due to the injuries from the gunshot wound.

Monday, a colorful makeshift memorial of candles, stuffed animals and notes adorned a tree near the site of the shooting.

"We talked to the victim’s family, and the mother wants his friends to not retaliate," Lt. Hosfelt said. "She doesn’t want things to escalate from here."

Ms. Wright agreed.

"We’re scared here," she said. "You don’t know if they’re going to come back. You don’t know who’s going to shoot out of anger."