Delaware News Journal
Dozens of people formed a pathway outside Christiana Hospital on Thursday afternoon. They came from law enforcement agencies in Delaware, and they were there to show support for Sr. Cpl. T.J. Webb, the 38-year-old Milford officer who was shot multiple times last week while trying to arrest a Pennsylvania fugitive near Rehoboth Beach.
Webb was released from Christiana on Thursday and transferred to a rehabilitation facility to continue recovering from several surgeries. He was wheeled out on a stretcher, and those lining the path applauded as he passed.
The ride to the rehab facility drew a police escort with more law enforcement officers and their vehicles lining Route 1. American flags flew above on overpasses courtesy of area fire departments.
Delaware News Journal
Susanne Whitney was at one of her part-time jobs Thursday evening when she received news that a Milford police officer had been shot.
President of A Walk in Their Shoes, a Delaware nonprofit aimed at uniting the community and law enforcement, Whitney has long worked with police across the state. She s also known several Milford officers for more than 20 years. A great deal of my friends are law enforcement, Whitney said, so my heart just dropped.
As the events of the evening unfolded, Whitney began receiving phone calls from community members and organizations asking how they could help Sr. Cpl. T.J. Webb, who d been shot numerous times by 37-year-old fugitive Evelio Rivera.
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A 36-year-old man died early Monday morning after being shot on Bristol Way near Wilton, marking the 307th person shot in Delaware this year, according to Delaware Online/The News Journal s shooting database.
The state has not recorded this many victims since at least 2017, which saw 282 people shot, 53 fatally, according to the database. This year, 65 people have been killed by gunfire, the last five of whom died in the past five days.
The message came over Sussex County s fire/EMS radio channel just after 7:53 p.m. Thursday. Police action for gunshots, 19540 Coastal Highway, Econo Lodge, the dispatcher said urgently. Medics requested.
Responding paramedics rushed to the motel near Rehoboth Beach, but they were too late.
Police were already on their way to Beebe Healthcare with a Milford police officer who had been shot multiple times by a fugitive he was trying to apprehend. And the suspect, a 37-year-old wanted for attempted murder in Pennsylvania, was dead.
A day later, it remains unclear exactly how the incident outside the Econo Lodge Inn and Suites Resort unfolded. But witnesses said it happened quickly – and chaotically.