Second double shooting in Wilmington this week

Wilmington Police are investigating the city’s second double shooting in three days. The latest incident happened Thursday night.

One man is dead and another is in critical but stable condition following a double shooting around 8 p.m. Thursday. It happened in the 600 block of E. 23rd St.

A 38-year-old victim was found inside a home with gunshot wounds to his upper chest. He was pronounced dead after being taken by ambulance to Christiana Hospital. The second victim, a 21-year-old man, was found further down the block with a gunshot wound to his back. He is in critical but stable condition.

Police are still investigating and haven’t released any information about possible suspects.

It’s the second double shooting in the northeast section of Wilmington. On Tuesday morning, two men were shot just before 11 a.m. in the 2200 block of N. Market St. One man had a gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead on the scene. The second victim had gunshot wounds to his arm and chest. He was taken to Christiana Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

In response to a surge in shootings in early 2017, Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki increased police presence in cooperation with federal, state and county resources. In an interview that airs Friday at 5:30 p.m. on WHYY-TV, Purzycki said “What everybody seems to understand is this is a long-term proposition to turn this violence around. You have to understand how deeply-seeded, in some of our communities, this kind of propensity for violence is.”