Kazemde Zahiratu was a 21-year-old Black man from Newark’s West Ward who was shot in the early hours of September 8, 2014. Around 2 a.m. officers responded to reports of shots on the 1000 block of South Orange Avenue and found him gravely wounded; he was taken to University Hospital and pronounced dead at 3:51 a.m. The Essex County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Task Force and Newark detectives handled the investigation, and officials publicly asked for tips.

His killing came during a violent late-summer weekend in Newark that included multiple fatal shootings. Community memorials and homicide listings remember him as a son and former West Side High School student; family messages note the grief of losing an only son.

Did anyone in Newark’s West Ward have information about that night or about Kazemde’s life that could help investigators?