Unsolved case · 2007
The short answer
On September 21, 2007, two 17-year-old Delaware State University freshmen were shot on campus; one, Shalita Middleton, died 32 days later. A fellow freshman was charged with murder but the charges were dismissed in 2009 for lack of evidence, and no further arrests have been made.
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Suggest coverage for 2007 Delaware State University shootingOn September 21, 2007, a perpetrator shot two 17-year-old Delaware State University freshmen, Shalita Middleton and Nathaniel Pugh, both from the Washington, D.C. area, on the university's campus. A third student was shot at but not wounded. Middleton died on October 23, 2007, 32 days later, from injuries sustained in the attack, without regaining consciousness.
The university stated it responded within 20 minutes of the shooting, notifying students through web announcements, by physically entering dormitories, and via telecommunications; text messages were not sent at the time of the incident. The campus was placed on "limited access status" from Friday, September 21 through Sunday, September 23, 2007, with classes resuming on Monday, September 24. Following the incident, the university increased security patrols on campus.
On September 24, 2007, police arrested Loyer D. Braden, a Delaware State University freshman from East Orange, New Jersey, in his dorm room and charged him with attempted first-degree murder among other offenses. A university spokesman, Carlos Holmes, publicly questioned Braden's decision to return to campus after the shooting. On September 28, 2007, following Braden's arraignment hearing, his case was transferred to Superior Court for trial, and the judge ordered that if Braden made bail he be barred from visiting the DESU campus or contacting potential witnesses. After Middleton died, a grand jury indicted Braden, upgrading his attempted first-degree murder charge to second-degree murder.
On May 19, 2009, a judge dismissed the charges against Braden, finding that the prosecution had withheld crucial evidence. A witness who had been with Middleton at the time of the shooting stated that two men wearing dreadlocks and white t-shirts had shot the students, contradicting the case against Braden. As of 2024, no further arrests had been made in connection with the shooting since the dismissal of Braden's charges.
This case remains unresolved, with the originally charged individual's case dismissed and no subsequent identification or prosecution of a perpetrator publicly reported.
Shalita Middleton and Nathaniel Pugh, both 17-year-old Delaware State University freshmen, are shot on campus; a third student is shot at but not wounded.
University places campus on 'limited access status' following the shooting.
Classes resume; police arrest Loyer D. Braden in his dorm and charge him with attempted first-degree murder among other offenses.
Following Braden's arraignment hearing, the case is transferred to Superior Court for trial.
Shalita Middleton dies from injuries sustained in the September 21 shooting, without regaining consciousness.
Judge dismisses charges against Braden, citing withheld evidence by the prosecution and eyewitness testimony that Braden was not the shooter.
Victims first. Every legal label is set from public records and court outcomes, not from the prose.
17-year-old Delaware State University freshman, shot and wounded on September 21, 2007.[3]
17-year-old Delaware State University freshman, shot on September 21, 2007; died October 23, 2007 from her injuries.[3]
Delaware State University freshman arrested on 24 September 2007 and charged with attempted first-degree murder for the shooting of two students; after one victim died, a grand jury upgraded the charge to second-degree murder plus first-degree assault. A judge dismissed all charges against him on 19 May 2009 after finding prosecutors had withheld a witness statement, taken the day after his arrest, that he was not the gunman and that two other men were responsible. He was never convicted, and as of the most recent reporting no one else has been arrested.[3]
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ONGOINGListenGreensboro, Caroline County, Maryland · 2010s
Anton Black died after police restrained him outside his Greensboro, Maryland, home in 2018; no criminal charges were brought, and Maryland began an independent case review in 2026 after a forensic audit recommended classifying the death as homicide.
Credit: Federal Bureau of InvestigationPublic domainSourceUNSOLVEDListenBridgeton City Park, Bridgeton, New Jersey · 2010s
Five-year-old Dulce Maria Alavez vanished from a playground at Bridgeton City Park in Bridgeton, New Jersey, on September 16, 2019, in a suspected abduction that remains unsolved.
SOLVEDListenWawa parking lot, Bear, Delaware · 2010s
Delaware State Police Corporal Stephen Ballard was shot and killed on April 26, 2017 after approaching a suspicious vehicle at a Wawa in Bear, Delaware. The shooter, Burgon Sealy Jr., was shot and killed by police the next day following a standoff at his home.
Fish Head Beach, Jenner, California · 2004
A young engaged couple, Lindsay Cutshall and Jason Allen, were shot to death while sleeping on a Sonoma County beach in August 2004. The case went unsolved for nearly 13 years until Shaun Gallon confessed following his arrest for another murder; he was convicted and sentenced to life without parole in 2019.
Credit: Family of Balbir Singh SodhiEditorial useSourceSOLVEDListenChevron gas station, Mesa, Arizona · 2001
Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh-American gas station owner in Mesa, Arizona, was fatally shot on September 15, 2001, by Frank Silva Roque, who mistook him for an Arab Muslim in a retaliatory hate crime following the September 11 attacks. Roque was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment.
Credit: unknownEditorial useSourceSOLVEDListenBenedict Canyon, Los Angeles, California · 2000
Susan Berman, a journalist and the daughter of a Las Vegas organized-crime figure, was found shot to death in her rented Los Angeles home on Christmas Eve 2000. Her longtime friend Robert Durst was convicted of her murder in 2021, more than two decades after the killing.
