On the morning of April 2, 2024, officers in Kansas City, Missouri, discovered the lifeless body of 16-year-old Alejandro DeLeon in the street. Police were initially dispatched to the area near East 57th Street and Michigan Avenue around 1:30 a.m. following reports of a shooting or a disturbance. Upon arrival, they located the male teenager suffering from apparent gunshot wounds near East 55th Street and Michigan.
Emergency medical personnel responded to the scene, but DeLeon was declared dead shortly after their arrival.
Detectives and crime scene personnel canvassed the neighborhood in the hours following the discovery, searching for witnesses and physical evidence to determine the circumstances leading up to the violence. The incident was recorded as the city's 35th homicide of the year. While investigators collected evidence from the scene, no immediate description of a shooter was released to the public. The investigation focused on piecing together the events that left the teenager alone and wounded on the residential street in the middle of the night.
Friends and family later remembered DeLeon, known affectionately as 'Hondo Bear' or 'Jondito,' as a hardworking and outgoing young man who had attended Shawnee Mission East High School and worked at local businesses. Despite the community's loss, no arrests or named suspects have been publicly reported in connection with his death. Authorities continued to urge anyone with information regarding the shooting to contact homicide detectives or the anonymous TIPS Hotline, leaving the case open as investigators sought leads to identify those responsible.
