WILMINGTON, DE — A 23-year-old man accused of carrying out a fatal shooting inside a Delaware hospital has been identified and faces multiple charges, including murder, authorities said June 17.
Police identified the suspect as John Wallace-Bey, of New Castle, Delaware, who was taken into custody on the night of June 16 in Philadelphia following a search that spanned hours after the shooting. He is awaiting extradition to Delaware, the Wilmington Police Department said in a news release.
Wallace-Bey faces several charges, including first-degree murder, first-degree attempted murder, two counts of possession of a firearm during a felony and carrying a concealed deadly weapon, according to police.
According to court documents obtained by the Delaware News Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network, Wallace-Bey was denied bail during his June 17 preliminary arraignment in Philadelphia County municipal court. He has an extradition hearing scheduled for June 29.
The shooting unfolded on the afternoon of June 16 at ChristianaCare Wilmington Hospital, where officers responding to reports of a shooting, and later found two victims suffering from gunshot wounds. One of the victims died, and the other remains hospitalized in critical but stable condition, police said.
Police have said the shooting appears to have been a targeted and isolated incident, though the motive remains under investigation.
Officers were called to ChristianaCare Wilmington Hospital at about 3:30 p.m. local time after receiving a report of a shooting inside the building, Wilmington Police Chief Wilfredo Campos said during a news conference on June 16. The chaotic scene engulfed the area of downtown Wilmington surrounding the hospital.
Police urged the public to avoid the area as they searched the 622,100-square-foot facility. The hospital was initially placed on lockdown, but that order was lifted several hours later as police began clearing the scene.
“Police located two gunshot victims. One of those victims has tragically died from his injuries,” Campos said at the news conference. In the news release on June 17, police identified the two victims in the incident as 19-year-old men.
Police have not said where in the hospital the shooting took place, and it is also not known how a weapon was taken into the facility.
Wilmington is the largest city in Delaware, with a population of more than 73,000, and is sometimes called the “corporate capital of America” due to the large number of companies located in the state. The city is about 30 miles south of Philadelphia.
Both victims and Wallace-Bey “were ChristianaCare employees at the time of the incident,” a spokesperson from the health system told the Delaware News Journal on June 17.
According to a LinkedIn profile, Wallace-Bey was an intern at ChristianaCare. He worked in the community health technology department and had worked at the hospital since February.
The incident was the latest violent attack to occur at a medical center in the United States in recent years. Workers at hospitals, nursing homes, and other healthcare settings “face significant risks of workplace violence,” according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Citing data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a 2025 article from the American College of Surgeons noted that healthcare workers are five times more likely to suffer workplace violence than other occupations and “in these types of events, 93% of assaults are committed against healthcare workers.”
In a statement on June 17, Wilmington Mayor John Carney said he was “heartbroken for the victims and their loved ones, for the ChristianaCare team, and for the entire city of Wilmington.”
“Violence has no place in our community,” Carney said in the statement. “It’s particularly distressing that such violence and tragedy unfolded at a facility with a primary function of providing lifesaving care. Our healthcare workers and their patients should never fear for their safety.”
Contributing: Esteban Parra, Delaware News Journal
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