In the late hours of a Friday night in July 2015, the Shot Spotter system alerted Trenton police to gunfire on Sweets Avenue. Officers found 28-year-old Leon McClendon, a Black man, inside his car with a gunshot wound to the head. He was conscious and able to speak with officers and was taken to a nearby hospital, but died the next day, Saturday, July 25, 2015. The death was ruled a homicide caused by the shooting.

McClendon had a prior violent history, including a previous incarceration for shooting a rival gang member. As of August 2018 the case remained open with no arrests reported and the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office listed it as unsolved. The circumstances around who shot him and why have not been publicly resolved.

If anyone has information about the shooting on Sweets Avenue in July 2015, please contact the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office or local Trenton law enforcement.