Franklin Mendez, 23, was killed in the early morning hours of Saturday, May 30, 2026, after gunfire on Caldwell Place in downtown Elizabeth, New Jersey. Officers responding to a shooting found Mendez with gunshot wounds; prosecutors later said he had been struck multiple times and he was pronounced dead at the scene. The location is a short street near Broad Street and Elizabethtown Plaza.

The Union County Prosecutor’s Office Homicide Task Force and Elizabeth Police opened an active homicide investigation. Officials did not release a motive or describe how Mendez and the shooter encountered one another. Within days, authorities arrested 19-year-old Bryan Calderon of Rahway; prosecutors charged him with first-degree murder and related weapons offenses after he was located in Garden City, Georgia and held for extradition.

Mendez was identified in obituary notices as Franklin E. Mendez, with funeral services set in Rahway and burial in El Salvador. Does anyone have information about what led to the shooting or knew Franklin’s movements that night?