Authorities in Delaware charged two male suspects with first-degree murder for the fatal shooting of a young woman on the campus of Delaware State University (DSU), according to a statement released Monday.
“The Dover Police Department is announcing the arrest of Destry Jones, age 20, and Damien Hinson, age 18, both of Dover, [Delaware,] for the murder of Camay Mitchell De Silva,” Chief Thomas Johnson said in part, the statement by the Dover Police Department (DPD) reads.
Jones was arrested in Brooklyn, New York, May 2 in a multi-agency operation involving U.S. Marshals, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and DPD detectives, Johnson said. He will be extradited to Dover. Hinson was arrested later that day in Dover in another multi-agency operation that also involved U.S. Marshals and is held in custody on bail of over $3 million.
Neither suspect is a DSU student and neither of them has any affiliation with the school, according to Chief Johnson.
Both suspects face conspiracy, firearms-related and first-degree attempted murder charges as well, Chief Johnson said in the statement. The charges stem from an alleged altercation April 21 between a group allegedly including the suspects and two other men. The other two were allegedly a 20-year-old and a 21-year-old. Multiple shots were allegedly fired during the fight and the suspects fled before officers arrived at the scene. (RELATED: Video Shows School Brawl That Allegedly Led To Gunshot, Five Injured Off-Campus)
The officers then located De Silva with a gunshot wound to the head on the grounds of Warren-Franklin Hall, next to the Tubman and Laws Halls, Chief Johnson continued in the statement. Jones and Hinson were involved in firing the shots that took De Silva’s life, the chief alleged in the statement.
“Miss De Silva was not involved in this altercation and we do not believe she was the intended target of the gunfire,” Chief Johnson said in the statement.
“I want to express my deepest condolences to the family of Camay De Silva,” the chief said. “Camay’s family has been in our thoughts from the moment this senseless act of violence occurred and our hope is that these apprehensions can help begin the process of healing.”
“In a way, it felt good to hear, the day before her funeral, that they apprehended two people for it,”. Shanelle De Silva, Camay’s mother, told reporters at the press conference, according to NBC10 Philadelphia. “I know that there’s a long process to go, but it felt good to know that’s a little better feeling that there will be someone to pay for what they did to Camay.”
She addressed the alleged gunmen. “I hope you can live with what you did and that guilt eats you up, because you took my baby girl from me,” Shanelle De Silva reportedly alleged.