On the evening of June 13, 2025, gunfire cut short the life of Javion Fort, a 15-year-old Black male from Akron. Around 5:30 p.m., multiple 911 calls drew officers to the intersection of South Rhodes Avenue and Oberlin Court in the Summit Lake area. Responding officers found the teenager wounded; he was rushed to Akron Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after. The Summit County Medical Examiner identified him as Javion J.
Fort, and early reports indicated detectives believed multiple people were involved.
In the days that followed, his family and neighborhood mourned a boy described as loving and outgoing, a rising 10th grader at Akron’s Steel Academy. His grandmother told local reporters she had been told he was “caught in the crossfire,” a phrase that captured both the shock and uncertainty of those first hours as investigators appealed for tips. A memorial fundraiser organized by relatives spoke plainly of a “senseless act of gun violence,” underscoring the grief that gripped those who knew him.
Investigators’ early pleas for information eventually gave way to arrests. On July 2, Akron police took three suspects into custody in separate locations with assistance from the Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force. The alleged gunmen were identified as 18-year-old Jaiden Trone and two juveniles, ages 14 and 15. All three were charged with aggravated murder; Trone was booked into the Summit County Jail, while the juveniles were held at the county’s Juvenile Detention Center. Police leadership publicly thanked detectives and partner agencies and expressed hope that the arrests would bring the family a measure of closure.
Details released by police place the fatal shooting precisely where the first frantic calls reported it—near South Rhodes and Oberlin—reinforcing a portrait of a brief, chaotic encounter that ended before help could arrive. Coverage across the city’s outlets and victim records documented the date, location, and swiftness with which the loss reverberated through Akron, even as investigators moved from a citywide search for leads to naming suspects and filing charges.
