Police ID young woman killed in Delaware State University shooting Sunday

Dover police have identified the 18-year-old woman killed in a shooting on Delaware State University’s campus early Sunday morning.

Camay Mitchell DeSilva, of Wilmington, was rushed to Bayhealth Kent Campus following the incident, but it was too late. DSU said she didn’t attend the university but was visiting a student.

News of the shooting trickled out on Sunday, first with an alert to the school community followed by a message from James Overton, who serves as DSU’s police superintendent and vice president of student affairs.

Issued just before 8 a.m., the message said that DSU police received “an initial phone call” about the shooting at 1:40 a.m. It occurred just outside the north end of an underpass outside Warren Franklin Residential Hall.

BACKGROUND Woman shot dead at DSU was visiting a student. Multiple persons of interest are sought

When officers arrived, they found DeSilva unconscious. A preliminary investigation conducted in tandem with Dover police indicated that DeSilva and “possibly another non-student female” were visiting a student on campus, the message said.

Following the incident, the suspect(s) ran toward College Road, according to DSU.

A Dover Police Department news release published just after noon on Sunday gave few additional details, adding only that no one else was injured.

As news of the shooting became public, parents took to social media to share photos of their children who attend the university, assuring friends and family that their kids were safe.

“Thank God,” some comments said, while others expressed shock and dismay.

One woman wrote that her daughter was friends with DeSilva and was “really taking it hard.”

Sunday evening, DSU President Tony Allen issued a statement calling the shooting “tragic.”

ALLEN STATEMENT: Delaware State University president issues statement after deadly shooting on campus

“First, let me say that whoever believes that settling disagreements of any kind should be met with physicalviolence − including the threat of and eventual use of firearms − is simply not welcomed here,” the statement began.

“We should pray for better days and pray for the safety and well-being of our campus as a whole,” Allen continued.

The campus was closed Sunday and classes were canceled Monday, though business operations otherwise continued as normal.

On Tuesday, DSU plans to hold a forum for “students, staff, faculty and parents to share any updates and to remember a young person gone too soon,” Allen said.

Neither the school nor police have provided additional information about what led to the shooting.

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