Rodney Square stabbing victim hailed as a hero

WILMINGTON Thomas Cottingham, convicted of fracturing a man’s skull with a hatchet in 2010 and known as “Cannibal,” was hailed as a hero Tuesday after he was stabbed to death protecting a young mother and her baby from a knife-wielding attacker the night before in Rodney Square, police said.

Cottingham, 27, of Wilmington, was stabbed repeatedly near a bus stop at 10th and North King streets, shortly after 9:30 p.m. Monday, police said.

Calvin Hooker III, 25, of Wilmington, is being held without bail on charges including first-degree murder, Sgt. Andrea Janvier said. Hooker was caught several blocks away after he ran off a DART bus after being spotted by police.

Mayor Dennis P. Williams expressed his condolences to Cottingham’s family, saying he hopes “they find solace and strength in knowing he was a hero, as he bravely risked his life to protect a fellow citizen.”

Investigators determined Hooker initially confronted the 21-year-old woman as she pushed her infant daughter in a stroller near 10th and North Walnut streets, Janvier said.

“The unprovoked attack was determined to be random in nature and no relationship could be established between any of the involved persons,” Janvier said in a statement. “Thomas Cottingham unselfishly placed himself in harm’s way, protecting a young woman and her child from imminent danger.”

As Hooker confronted the woman, he made reference to a stolen phone, but she kept walking west on 10th Street as he followed her, Janvier said. When the woman got to the 1000 block of North King Street, she said, Hooker pulled a large knife and tried to attack her.

He chased her around the bus shelter along 10th Street, then she tried to get into the shelter to get away from him, Janvier said. Cottingham then intervened, Janvier said. He tried to stop the attack as the woman kept trying to get into the bus shelter with the stroller and baby, she said.

Hooker stabbed Cottingham in the back and Cottingham tried to get away, she said, but Hooker followed him, repeatedly stabbing him in the upper torso.

Hooker walked away and Cottingham collapsed about 30 feet from the shelter, she said.

Bystanders directed arriving officers toward Ninth and Market streets, where police soon found Hooker inside a DART bus that was sitting at a stop, Janvier said.

Restaurant encounter

Shortly before 10 p.m. Monday, Katelyn Irwin of Marshallton, had finished dinner outside the Ernest & Scott Taproom in the 900 block of North Market Street with friends.

As they waited for dessert, she said, “two women ran up and they were stumbling, they ran into the restaurant, pointing behind them, saying, ‘That man just stabbed somebody.’ ”

Moments later, “that man” walked by the restaurant, said Irwin, 25, who works in real estate.

He had a neutral look on his face, “spaced out, almost,” she said.

She didn’t see a knife, but noticed he had his right hand in his pocket. Irwin said she didn’t see any obvious blood, just a few dark spots on his green shorts.

A busboy then ran from the restaurant and flagged down a police car, Irwin said.

Hooker kept walking down the street, she said.

“He was muttering something incoherent when he walked away, then he started running,” she said.

Irwin, 25, who works in real estate, moved to New Castle County from southern Delaware about five years ago, said she doesn’t spend much time in Wilmington.

“The funny thing is,” she said, “I actually do carry a knife on me for that reason – because it’s not a safe area.”

Stunned, captured

From the area of the restaurant and bus stop, Hooker ran south to the 800 block of North Market Street, Janvier said, and went into an alley that leads to the 800 block of North King Street.

Pursuing officers saw Hooker holding the large knife and repeatedly ordered him to drop it, Janvier said.

There, additional officers who responded to the area deployed an “electronic control device” that struck Hooker, caused him to drop the knife and fall to the ground, Janvier said.

In addition to first-degree murder, Hooker was charged with possession of a deadly weapon during commission of a felony, carrying a concealed deadly weapon, aggravated menacing, endangering the welfare of a child and resisting an arrest with force. He is being held without bail, Janvier said.

Hooker was arrested twice last year, according to Superior Court records.

In February, he was charged with assaulting a person 62 or older and pleaded guilty to offensive touching, but court records showed no sentencing information. He also was arrested in October on charges of aggravated menacing and terroristic threatening that later were dropped. Court records also showed he was involved in numerous Family Court cases but details were not immediately available.

Victim ‘well-known’

The man he is accused of killing was well known in Rodney Square, his friends said Tuesday.

Anyone who saw him once would recognize his “Goth skateboard punk” look, said Durond Davis, 20, of Wilmington.

He was rarely without his skateboard, performed his original rap music and had a distinctive look with facial piercings, ear gauges, wildly dyed hair and a lot of tattoos, he said.

But Davis – who was with Cottingham at Rodney Square until shortly before the stabbing – said he wasn’t surprised that his friend, known by the street name of Cannibal, died trying to help someone else.

“He was the kind of person that put the needs of others before his own,” Davis said, sitting Tuesday morning in the bus shelter where his friend was stabbed. “If you needed a dollar or two, he’d give you the last he had.”

Christina Reynolds of Wilmington, who also knew Cottingham, said she wished he hadn’t intervened. Sitting in the shelter Tuesday morning, she said, “If he had minded his own business, he’d be alive.”

As tears welled in her eyes, she said, “he should’ve minded his own business.”

Jimena Bradley of Wilmington sat quietly in the same shelter Tuesday morning as others there spoke of their friend’s stabbing death the night before.

In her lap squirmed her 2-year-old, Ja’irus. Bradley said she did not know the victim and was unaware what happened.

“But I would be thanking him,” she said, “if that was me and my child he was saving.”

About 10 p.m. Monday, Davis said he got a text saying his friend Cannibal had been stabbed at Rodney Square.

He and friends ran many blocks to the city square. “But it was too late,” he said.

Police tape was up and an officer confirmed his friend was dead, Davis said.

His death is a big loss, he said. “He was talented and artistic,” Davis said, adding that his skateboarding was so skilled, he could have had corporate sponsors.

Cottingham also was a skilled tattoo artist, he said, and created the designs that he inked to his own arms, neck and wrists.

Although the two were homeless and met at the Sunday Breakfast Mission, Davis called his friend, who had some rough patches in his past, “a total artist who just needed to get a lucky break.”

Staff reporter Saranac Spencer contributed to this story.

Contact robin brown at (302) 324-2856 or rbrown@delawareonline.com. Find her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter @rbrowndelaware.

TIPS SOUGHT

The Wilmington Police Department is continuing its investigation of the fatal stabbing Monday night at Rodney Square of Thomas Cottingham, 27, of Wilmington.

Anyone with information about the incident – with Calvin Hooker III, 25, of Wilmington, charged with murder, resisting arrest and other offenses – is asked to call Detective Brian Conkey at (302) 576-3660.

Information also may be given on the Wilmington Police Homicide Confidential Hotline at (302) 576-3939.