Killing of Stephen Ballard

Corporal Stephen J. Ballard, a Delaware State Police officer, was shot and killed on April 26, 2017, after approaching a vehicle in the parking lot of a Wawa gas station in Bear, Delaware. Ballard asked the driver and passenger for identification and then asked the passenger, Burgon Sealy Jr., to step out of the car. A struggle ensued, and Sealy began shooting at Ballard. Ballard was unable to draw his weapon in time and attempted to find cover, but Sealy pursued him and continued firing, striking him multiple times in the upper body, including after he had fallen to the ground.

Ballard was born in Bowie, Maryland, on January 28, 1985. He graduated from Delaware State University in 2007 with a degree in Criminal Justice and later graduated from the Delaware State Police academy in 2009. At the time of his death, he had served eight years with the Delaware State Police.

Law enforcement tracked Sealy, then 26, to his home on St. Michaels Drive in the Brick Mill Farm development of Middletown, Delaware. Sealy barricaded himself inside, leading to a standoff involving Delaware State Police and FBI agents. In the early morning hours of April 27, 2017, authorities used explosive charges to breach windows of the house and attempted to persuade Sealy to surrender. Sealy fired several rounds at police, then exited the house and was shot by officers. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Ballard's death prompted widespread community expressions of support for law enforcement in northern Delaware, including residents placing blue tape on car windows, a $50,000 donation from Wawa to Ballard's family, donation drives at Wawa locations, supportive signage at area banks, and free transit rides offered by DART First State to funeral events. A large funeral was held on May 5, 2017, at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware, attended by hundreds of police officers from Delaware and other states, followed by a funeral procession to New Castle, Delaware. Ballard was buried at Gracelawn Memorial Cemetery.

The shooting occurred shortly before Delaware legislators had been set to vote on repealing the state's death penalty, and that vote was postponed. State Representative Steve Smyk, a Republican and retired Delaware State Trooper, said support for reinstating the death penalty had grown following Ballard's killing and the killing of Delaware prison guard Steven Floyd. On May 9, 2017, the Delaware House of Representatives voted to reinstate the death penalty, citing Ballard's killing as a motivating factor; the bill did not receive a committee hearing in the state Senate. In May 2019, Smyk introduced a similar bill.