WILMINGTON — The chief of the Wilmington Police Department is defending his officers’ handling and the department’s dissemination of information in the wake of three stabbings in downtown Wilmington over the weekend; however, he said he will be readdressing resource allocation, including where he assigns officers, as the city experiences an increase in homicides so far this year.
The stabbings both took place around 2 a.m. on Sunday; in one incident, two people were injured, and one block over another person was injured. 21-year-old Daniel Montano, a Marine stationed at Camp Lejeune, perished from his injuries.
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The WPD has not released the identity of the other victim involved in the Montano stabbing, but Zuidema told Port City Daily Wednesday the person is expected to recover. The WPD is looking for a person of interest.
Only minutes after the two stabbings, another took place that left a 22-year-old woman with life-threatening injuries. The WPD has arrested and charged 20-year-old Jazya Muldrow-Green with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury.
Because the two incidents were only a block away on North Front Street, community members speculated online the two were connected, despite the Wilmington Police Department telling media they did not suspect a link between the two.
Zuidema said the WPD knew early on they would be conducting separate investigations because the descriptions of the suspects provided by witnesses were of one male and one female. Next in the line of questioning was whether one stabbing caused the other or if the incidents were at all related; Zuidema said no information the witnesses provided at the scene or the department has gathered since has indicated a connection.
The WPD didn’t send out a press release on the incident or mention it publicly until Monday around noon. Though it’s WPD’s policy not to comment on an ongoing investigation, the press release gave minimal details about the unfolding events. Nor did the department answer questions from local media outlets.
Zuidema added during his PCD interview this is to ensure information provided is complete and correct; however, he took media interviews Wednesday following public speculation on the incidents. A video began circulating online, depicting Montano’s injuries and police response — fueling criticisms further.
Releasing information after an incident, Zuidema said, is more complicated when someone has been seriously injured and could pass away, as was the case with Montano. The goal of WPD is to inform the family of a person’s injuries so they don’t see it on the news.
In addition, the chief explained, the WPD doesn’t want to release information that would jeopardize the ability to identify or locate a potential suspect.
“We’re trying to take all those things into account at the same time to make sure that we not just find and arrest the person responsible, but we ultimately successfully prosecute them,” Zuidema said.
In addressing the video of Montano, Zuidema indicated it shows only a snippet of what happened.
The video begins with a fight between three individuals in the street before a WPD officer pepper sprays one man, who then runs away. The camera pans to Montano, with a puddle of blood at his feet, as he leans over and holds a hand to his neck, one officer standing beside him.
The officer calls over his colleagues; three join him. All four officers then appear to be searching their pockets before a civilian runs over to Montano, taking off his shirt and guiding Montano to the ground before placing the shirt on Montano’s wound.
One officer can be seen putting on gloves, as another appears to be making a call on his radio. A third officer then puts on gloves. Two other officers, one with gloves on and another putting gloves on, stand to the side looking at the larger scene. It doesn’t appear any of the officers began addressing Montano’s injuries before the 42-second video ends.
Zuidema told Port City Daily the officers responded as protocol outlines. He explained it is standard procedure that officers don gloves before interacting with someone bleeding.
What the video doesn’t show, Zuidema said, is that one officer had been exposed to pepper spray and was “having a difficult time” dealing with the effects. He also noted the officer shown using his radio was calling for an ambulance. After the events depicted in the video, officers spent several minutes providing medical aid before EMS arrived.
The video also doesn’t fully capture the chaos of the scene, Zuidema said. While addressing Montano, officers received alerts regarding the second stabbing incident and encountered the second victim of Montano’s stabbing incident, running away from the scene. When officers took him into custody, they applied a tourniquet in an attempt to stop the bleeding from his injuries.
“I believe my officers acted as well as they could given all of those circumstances I just described, in a very trying environment with a difficult situation,” Zuidema said.
Trends in violence
Port City Daily also spoke to the chief more broadly about violence trends in Wilmington.
The department has reported a 17% decline in violent crime from 2024 to 2025. Incidents of murder stayed the same at 10 incidents, though it decreased from 15 in 2021. Aggravated assaults went down from 448 to 341 between 2024 and 2025.
Zuidema reported an increase in homicides this year to date compared to the same period in 2025. Port City Daily asked a WPD spokesperson to provide the data for comparison but did not receive it by press.
The chief said the WPD hasn’t isolated any factors it could attribute to this year’s uptick. Any time numbers of violent incidents escalate, it requires reassessing the department’s allocation of resources, which is where staffing levels play a role.
The WPD’s vacancy rate is nearly 21% in a department intended to have 281 sworn officers. The city is contemplating a “living wage” — where all city employees, including officers, would be guaranteed a base pay of $45,531— geared toward alleviating vacancies and retaining experienced staff. Zuidema indicated his support for the measure, though the main hurdle will be the 4-cent addition required of the tax rate for implementation.
Port City Daily asked if the chief would draw a direct link between this weekend’s stabbings and the WPD’s vacancy problem; he refrained, noting officers are “resilient” and do an “incredible job with the resources” they have.
“If we had more staffing, would we put more officers downtown? Yes,” Zuidema said. “We would put more officers everywhere in the city, quite honestly.”
He also said he spoke with the New Hanover County sheriff about resources. On Wednesday, New Hanover County Commissioner Dane Scalise wrote in a social media post he also spoke with the sheriff and encouraged him to help the city however he can in downtown Wilmington.
“The recent violence in downtown Wilmington is tragic and unacceptable. It MUST STOP immediately. I grieve for the victims and their families,” Scalise wrote. “Simply put, our citizens, businesses, and tourists deserve much better. At a minimum, we need to deploy more law enforcement in the streets, especially as bars are closing.”
One council member also spoke about the weekend’s events at the council’s Tuesday meeting. Chakema Clinton-Quintana said she was doubling down on her statement given at the last meeting; she has called for a stop to violence in the community.
Earlier at the Tuesday meeting, content creator Madison Morrison questioned if council wanted a stop to the violence or “just the violence that makes the city look bad.” She previously posted a video claiming city leadership were minimizing the stabbings in an effort not to deter visitors to this weekend’s Azalea Festival, bringing in around 100,00 people.
Clinton-Quintana said her plea was not about events coming up.
“We have events all the time in this city but the violence has gotten worse and just for the record, I know that we get, several of us — especially Kevin and myself — questions about, ‘Hey, what’s going on with this investigation’ and so forth. We don’t have the information,” Clinton-Quintana said. “If it’s an investigation, they aren’t giving it to us. That defeats the purpose of it being an investigation.”
The WPD is asking the public for help identifying a person of interest in Montano’s incident, described as an adult Black male with a medium build wearing a light-colored fleece-lined denim jacket, light-colored denim pants, a pink shirt and white sneakers with blue and red accents. The public can submit any information, including camera footage, using this link or contacting Det. Childress with the Wilmington Police Department at 910-343-3686. The anonymous tip line is also available.
Below are images of the person of interest:
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at [email protected].
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