On the afternoon of December 26, 2018, 16-year-old Judane Holmes was inside New US Fried Chicken on Bidwell Avenue in Jersey City when a masked person entered and fatally shot him moments after he placed his order. Jersey City police received a report of shots fired at about 3:25 p.m.; Holmes was found with gunshot wounds and pronounced dead ten minutes later. The Regional Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed gunshot wounds as the cause of death and ruled the manner homicide.

Authorities treated the killing as gang-related and identified three juvenile suspects from Jersey City. In early January 2019, a 14-year-old, a 15-year-old, and a 16-year-old were arrested; the two younger teens were charged as accomplices in juvenile court. The 16-year-old identified as the shooter, Jaquay Gleaton, had his case waived to adult court. The shooting prompted at least one retaliatory incident in January 2019 that injured two people and produced additional arrests. Holmes’s mother called the killing senseless and disputed that it was retaliation.

If anyone remembers Judane at Snyder High School or was in the Bidwell Avenue area that afternoon, please share what you know.