Delaware State Police Cpl. Matthew “Ty” Snook was shot and killed Dec. 23 at a New Castle Department of Motor Vehicles office by a man who believed law enforcement was monitoring and harassing him, according to a final investigative report state police released Friday.
Rahman Rose, 44, of Wilmington, had told others he was the victim of “gang stalking” — a belief that government entities are surveilling and targeting an individual — and had posted about it on social media, investigators said. Rose had no prior interaction with Snook before the attack.
Investigators described the shooting as a deliberate attack on law enforcement driven by Rose’s conviction that police were targeting him personally, a belief that investigators found no factual basis for in his limited prior contacts with Delaware authorities.
Delaware State Police Cpl. Matthew “Ty” Snook was working an overtime assignment at the reception desk of a New Castle Department of Motor Vehicles office on Dec. 23 when Rahman Rose entered as a customer, approached him from behind, and shot him with a handgun, state police said Friday in their final investigative update on the killing.
Rose, 44, had no prior interaction with Snook but believed law enforcement was surveilling and targeting him, investigators said. Rose had told others he was a victim of “gang stalking” — a belief that government entities are systematically monitoring and harassing an individual — and had posted about the belief on social media.
“Based on the totality of the evidence, detectives concluded this was a deliberate and targeted attack on law enforcement,” the state’s homicide unit said.
Timeline of the attack
Rose entered the DMV office on the morning of Dec. 23 and left a short time later, then returned hours later and carried out the ambush, state police said. Snook shielded a DMV employee as Rose fired at him multiple times.
Rose allowed customers to leave the building before firing multiple rounds at law enforcement as officers approached. A New Castle county police officer shot Rose through a window from outside the building. Rose later died at a hospital.
Rose’s background
Rose had previously lived in Connecticut and was living in Wilmington, Delaware, without a permanent address at the time of the shooting, investigators said. His limited contact with Delaware law enforcement in the year before the shooting involved no criminal allegations or arrests, and none of that contact included Snook, investigators said.
Snook remembered
Snook, who went by “Ty,” was a 10-year veteran of the Delaware State Police.
“Ty’s courageous act of strength and sacrifice reflected the core values he lived by every day — protecting others with bravery, selflessness and steady integrity,” state police said Friday.