A 19-year-old man was shot to death Monday afternoon while riding in a car in Akron's Kenmore neighborhood, after two suspects opened fire on the vehicle in the 700 block of Marie Avenue. The 17-year-old boy who was driving fled the scene and was later found safe near Lakemont Avenue and Manchester Road, roughly a mile away, uninjured by the gunfire that killed his passenger.
Akron police officers responded to reports of a shooting around 2:05 p.m. near Lakemont Avenue and Manchester Road, according to Cleveland.com. Police say two suspects fired at a vehicle in the 700 block of Marie Avenue, striking the 19-year-old with gunfire and leaving him with a gunshot wound to the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and police have not released his identity as the investigation continues.
The 17-year-old driver left the area with the vehicle before he was later located near Lakemont Avenue and Manchester Road, per the same report. Investigators say the suspects were described only as two Black men wearing dark clothing, and as of Monday's report, no arrests had been announced. Akron detectives and crime scene unit members processed the shooting scene as the investigation remained ongoing.
A Familiar Stretch of Southwest Akron
Both the shooting site on Marie Avenue and the recovery location near Manchester Road and Lakemont Avenue sit within Kenmore, a historic residential neighborhood on Akron's southwest side, according to WKYC. The Manchester Road corridor has seen deadly gunfire before — a 2022 shooting on nearby Kenmore Boulevard led to a life sentence for the gunman in November 2024, after he represented himself at trial in Summit County Common Pleas Court, as Hoodline previously reported.
Monday's shooting also fits a broader pattern of vehicle-targeted gun violence that has struck Akron this year. In May, a 40-year-old man was killed and a 36-year-old woman was wounded when gunfire hit their Jeep Latitude at Marcy Street and Cole Avenue, and just days earlier a 16-year-old boy was shot in the head while sitting in a parked car on South Arlington Street before the vehicle crashed into a nearby fence.
Homicides Down, But Neighborhood Violence Persists
The killing comes even as Akron's overall violence numbers have trended downward. The city recorded 25 homicides in 2024, down slightly from 26 in 2023 and roughly half its 2020 peak of 50, while logging 12 homicides through the first half of 2025, per WKYC. Adult non-fatal shooting victims fell by half during the first six months of 2025 compared with the same period the year before, dropping from 92 to 46, alongside double-digit declines in felonious assaults and robberies, the station reported.
Even so, FBI Uniform Crime Reporting data placed Akron among Ohio's ten most violent major cities in 2024, with a violent crime rate of 820.3 per 100,000 residents — well below Cleveland's state-leading rate of 1,561 per 100,000, according to eufy US. City officials have continued pushing police reform efforts; Mayor Shammas Malik announced in July that Akron had implemented 18 of 58 recommendations from an independent Police Executive Research Forum review aimed at modernizing department policies and critical incident investigations, according to the City of Akron.
What Comes Next
Firing into an occupied vehicle is a felony under Ohio law, and anyone convicted of the second-degree felony offense faces a mandatory two to eight years in prison, according to the Ohio Revised Code. It remains unclear whether the 19-year-old victim or the vehicle he was riding in was specifically targeted, and the medical examiner has not yet released his identity pending family notification.
Akron police are asking anyone with information about the shooting to come forward. Tips can be submitted anonymously to the Detective Bureau at 330-375-2490 or 330-375-2TIP, by texting AKRONPD to 847411, or through Summit County CrimeStoppers at 330-434-COPS or by texting TIPSCO to 274637.
