On May 4, 2020, 27-year-old Dion Clayton was found fatally shot at the intersection of 46th and Broadway in Gary, Indiana. Police first discovered about 15 shell casings at a nearby Save Gas Station at 45th and Broadway; a trail of blood led from the station to where Clayton was located. Two other men were wounded in the same shooting.

Investigators recovered a cigarette butt two days after the shooting from a frequently used alley near the gas station. DNA from that cigarette was later matched to 31-year-old Marquis D. Young, who was charged in December 2020 with one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder. A Lake County jury convicted Young and he was sentenced to 115 years in prison.

In May 2022 the Indiana Court of Appeals overturned Young’s convictions, finding the evidence insufficient to prove he was the shooter. The court highlighted that although surveillance showed someone resembling Young discarding a cigarette, police could not confirm the tested cigarette butt was the one seen on the footage, and therefore the record did not definitively place Young at the scene.

If anyone knew Dion Clayton, was at 45th or 46th and Broadway on May 4, 2020, or has information about the shooting, please share what is known.