On the night of June 18, 2026, a vehicle that had struck a utility pole at South Van Buren Avenue and Harold Avenue in Barberton, Ohio, was the scene of a fatality. Emergency crews found three young men in the car; 20-year-old Benjamin Hutchison of Akron was pronounced dead at the scene and two other occupants were taken to hospital with injuries. Initial scene observations indicated injuries consistent with both a crash and a gunshot wound. The Summit County Medical Examiner’s Office later ruled Hutchison’s death a homicide from a gunshot wound to the torso, shifting the response to a murder investigation led by the Barberton Police Detective Bureau with assistance from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the medical examiner’s office.

Police said they did not believe the shooting was random. Within days detectives executed warrants and arrested two 15-year-old boys; a 16-year-old boy was arrested a short time later by the U.S. Marshals Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force. All three juveniles were booked into the Summit County Juvenile Detention Center on murder charges.

Was anyone in the Barberton or Akron area aware of unusual activity near South Van Buren and Harold Avenues on June 18 that could help investigators?