Fifteen-year-old Aaden Jayon Bailey was shot and killed in Houston, Texas on July 16, 2024. A rising sophomore at Elsik High School in the Alief Independent School District, Aaden loved singing, rapping and sports, especially football, basketball and track and field. The night he died he told his mother his stepfather would drop him at a friend’s house and that he would return the next day.

Aaden was one of four teenagers fatally shot in the Houston area that week, and his death prompted vigils and memorials in Houston and in his birthplace, Wilmington, Delaware. The Houston Police Department opened a homicide investigation; as of August 27, 2024 no arrests had been announced and no suspects publicly identified. His family has called for faster progress and urged the community to help end youth gun violence.

Anyone with information about Aaden’s death is asked to contact the Houston Police Department Homicide Division or Crime Stoppers.