Wilmington, Delaware police officer fatally shot 19-year-old Kadir Skinner during foot pursuit, disputed by body-camera footage

On June 24, 2026, a Wilmington Police Department officer fatally shot 19-year-old Kadir Skinner following a foot pursuit in a northeast Wilmington neighborhood, and Skinner died at Wilmington Hospital. Police said officers saw Skinner exit a residence and point a gun at a crowd of people before he fled on foot; body-camera footage from three officers, jointly released by the Delaware Department of Justice, the City of Wilmington, and the Wilmington Police Department on July 16, 2026, shows the pursuing officer draw his weapon roughly four seconds after leaving his patrol car and fire it three seconds later, striking Skinner as he ran. No gun is visible in Skinner's hands in the footage, and none was recovered from his possession on camera; after the shooting, the officer can be heard saying Skinner "threw something" and instructing others to find the gun police allege was his. Skinner told officers "I don't got nothing" as he lay on the pavement repeating "I can't breathe"; about a minute after the shooting the officer asked if he was hit, and Skinner was placed in a patrol car and taken to Wilmington Hospital roughly three and a half minutes after being shot.

The Skinner family and their attorneys, who reviewed the footage a day before its public release, dispute the department's account and say the video shows no crowd near the residence and no gun in Skinner's hands, and that he was shot while running away from, not toward, the officer. The Delaware Department of Justice's Division of Civil Rights and Public Trust is investigating the shooting; the officer who fired had not been publicly identified as of this recording, and officials say a full public report will be released once the investigation concludes.

Updates

2026-07-16 — DOJ and city released body-camera footage; family disputed police account, sent $25 million notice of claim [1, 3, 4]

On July 16, 2026, the Delaware Department of Justice, City of Wilmington, and Wilmington Police Department jointly released body-camera footage from the June 24 shooting. At a press conference the same day, family attorneys Harry Daniels and Chance Lynch said the footage contradicted the department's account, disputed that a gun was ever pointed at a crowd, and called for the officer to face criminal charges. The family also sent the city a $25 million wrongful-death notice of claim, a required precursor step before a lawsuit can be filed; as of this recording no lawsuit had yet been filed.