Across the state, young men are dying before they’ve had a chance to really live.
From Sussex to New Castle County, families are weeping, and communities are reeling, as an ongoing wave of youth violence turns communities into crime scenes.
Young people involved in gun violence are unlikely to be deterred by tougher laws or tighter gun restrictions alone. Advocates say it’s time to treat gun violence as a statewide public health crisis and strengthen coordinated, community-based solutions that address its root causes and prevent further harm.
“Delaware needs to acknowledge that the gun violence we saw erupt in Dover in September was the culmination of ongoing group and gang conflict, with devastating consequences for young people, families, and the broader community,” said Dr. Lauren J. Footman, executive director of End Community Violence Now (ECVN), a public-private partnership that coordinates community violence intervention efforts statewide.
“Community partners have offered their expertise, relationships, and support, but those offers have too often been met with efforts to create new structures and consolidate control without the dedicated staff or funding needed to deliver results,” Footman said. “Our communities need the governor’s administration to publicly acknowledge this violence and fund what is working at the scale this crisis demands. Offices, meetings, and press conferences cannot substitute for that commitment.”
ECVN grew out of the public health approach advanced by the CDC’s investigation in Wilmington, Footman said. She called on the administration to build on that foundation by funding at scale Community Violence Intervention (CVI), Group Violence Intervention (GVI), hospital-based violence intervention programs (HVIPs), workforce development, prevention, and mental health services.
“Government, law enforcement, healthcare providers, schools, employers, and community organizations must work toward shared goals, with clear responsibilities and accountability for results,” she said. “Those investments must strengthen partners that will outlast any one administration. Success means fewer shootings, lives saved, and lasting community safety.”
In many ways, it’s just how Delaware and other states fought the COVID 19 pandemic – through a structured, statewide, coordinated effort, focused on directly treating the causes and aftereffects of the affliction.
Footman and the passionate community groups supported by ECVN have seen how it can work. In the western Sussex County town of Laurel, which has a population 6% the size of Wilmington, three young adults were shot to death in just six months during 2023. A sense of trauma and fear was everywhere.
The first of those killings prompted the creation of Operation West Laurel (OWL), one of ECVN’s community partners. All three young victims were former students of OWL founder Amy Handy, who brought state and local partners together to respond. OWL coordinated with police to address “street takeovers” and, with support from then-Gov. John Carney’s office and local officials introduced intervention programs at the high school and connected young men at risk of violence with resources, support, and opportunities.
A Laurel Police Department comparison of violent crime data from 2023 through 2025 found that, while simple and aggravated assaults increased from 2023 to 2024, other measures of violence trended downward, including homicides, shootings, and shots fired in 2025. When violence increased early this year, coordinated public-private efforts helped curb the uptick by bringing prevention, intervention, and enforcement partners together.
One of the peer mentors on scene then was Cammerin Norwood, who once was caught in the same cycle of youth violence, but has since committed himself to helping others escape that trap.
“At 15 years old, I was sentenced to juvenile life, and it was a reality that shaped me, but did not define me,” said Norwood, who would win a pardon from the governor and create the R.O.O.T.S. Foundation, committed to youth violence prevention and empowerment.
“These young men want to work. They want to do the right thing. But they feel as though they’re left behind and forgotten about,” he said.
Last year, after the comprehensive intervention, Laurel reported zero shootings or killings, and the block parties have subsided.
“Laurel’s success shows how these public-private partnerships are really coming around,” Footman said. “And it shows that we have a model that produces results. Unfortunately, the state and our lawmakers haven’t sustained their commitment to these proven solutions.”
Norwood also senses that fading commitment, and feels the frustration of convincing them that community intervention efforts hold the key.
“It’s been disheartening because we’ve been singing this song for a long time, and telling the people in charge that these things will continue to happen if they don’t support this effort,” he said. “It’s just starting to seem like they don’t care about what’s happening.”
ECVN and its allies recently called for the administration of Gov. Matt Meyer to declare that violence across the state is a public health emergency, as was done in Wilmington during a wave of shootings in 2013. That declaration cleared the way for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to investigate, and the report it produced was regarded as one of the first times that urban firearm violence among young people was studied through an epidemiological, public health perspective.
Its recommendations also followed that health-focused framework, urging the city to treat violence as a contagious disease. Risk factors that led to violence were tracked, and social services were deployed to treat the root causes.
But more than a decade later, officials’ commitment seems to have waned, Footman said. In some sense, progress has eased the sense of urgency – high rates of shootings have subsided across the state and in Wilmington since a pandemic-era surge. But the roots of violence – the poverty, the sense of hopelessness, the shattered families – are still driving a grim dynamic.
“Things are only going to get worse if there is not an all hands on deck approach,” Footman said, pointing to an execution-style murder of an 18-year-old outside a restaurant along U.S. 13, near the popular Bally’s Dover Casino. Peer mentors are warning that youth conflicts are crossing community borders: Young offenders from upstate are now acting against targets in other towns.
“You have individuals from all over the state, connecting with each other through the juvenile and DOC facilities who eventually become trauma bonded with each other, which could lead to them furthering criminal acts once they are released.” said Kaligah Parker, founder and executive director of the Carry The Light Project, a CVI group based in Dover. “It becomes a network of negativity instead of positivity due to lack of awareness for resources.”
For two of the past three years, Kent County’s homicide rate has been higher than New Castle County’s. It’s plainly not a “Wilmington problem” anymore.
“We are concerned that the uptick in violence in New Castle or Kent will just find its way down in Sussex again,” Handy said. Each grim headline seems to inspire gang members intent on grabbing an even bigger headline, and social media only fuels the fire.
“Now, we’re seeing that the victims are becoming younger and younger,” Footman said. “We’re the only state in our region that is not supporting CVI efforts. The sense of urgency you hear in my voice is how we are all feeling – communities are reeling.”
It’s a problem that can’t be overcome by laws or policing alone, CVI proponents say. Its stubborn dynamics reach far deeper, touching on issues like education, opportunity and intergenerational poverty – Laurel’s woes were linked in part to its 36% poverty rate, making it the state’s poorest city.
“The violence is nothing but a symptom of the deeper problems,” Norwood said. “Violence is just the outlet.”
The costs of that violence reach far beyond its immediate victims, and pose a substantial financial burden on the entire state. The economic impact of gun deaths in Delaware is estimated to be more than $1 billion a year, or more than $1,200 per resident.
The cost of enlisting young people like Norwood and Parker is certainly far less, as would be the cost of a comprehensive program. ECVN says that it would cost the state $5 million to put something meaningful in place.
But time is running out before someone else dies.
“We’re in a crisis. We’re in an emergency. This is not hyperbolic,” Footman said. “We need to turn things around and start making some investments soon.”
