Police looking for this car in the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old boy in Durham
Durham police are looking for a white Hyundai Sonata in the weekend shooting that killed 15-year-old Aryion “AJ” Clendenning.
A GoFundMe campaign for AJ’s family, which includes his mom and sister, describes him as a “dedicated student” who was skilled at football and enjoyed video games. AJ was a sophomore at Riverside High School, according to the school’s football roster.
A family friend said he was “fun, outgoing (and) had a whole life ahead of him,” ABC11 reported.
A balloon release is planned at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Magnolia Pointe Apartments, according to a flier shared by The NC Beat.
The shooting happened Saturday afternoon at the apartment complex on Danube Lane in northeast Durham. The friend who spoke with ABC11, The News & Observer’s newsgathering partner, said that kids in the neighborhood were playing in the snow at the time.
AJ was pronounced dead at the hospital, according to police.
“Based on preliminary investigation, it appears the suspect fired a weapon from a vehicle and then fled the scene,” police said in news release.
On Wednesday, police released a photo of that car, a white 2016 Hyundai Sonata that was stolen the day of the shooting. The vehicle’s license plate is PHB-5033.
“If you see this vehicle, please call 911 and consider the occupants of the vehicle to be armed and dangerous,” police warned.
‘Young people are dying’
Police reported 27 children and young people under 18 were shot in Durham last year, 12% of all those wounded or killed by gunfire in 2024. Thirteen were between 6 and 15 years old.
In an interview, Mayor Leonardo Williams said he was frustrated, especially as he watched people protest a law enforcement training facility Monday night at a county commissioners meeting.
“Young people are dying and getting hurt on almost a weekly basis,” Williams said. “Pretending we can live in a world without police is just insane to me.”
The overwhelming majority of gun violence victims are Black men under the age of 35, a recent analysis by Duke University researchers found, despite the group accounting for only a small percentage of the city’s population.
Williams said low law enforcement staffing, the recently eliminated Bull City United and ShotSpotter programs, and the bail set in court hearings all contribute to a public safety “crisis” in Durham. He said he plans to organize a meeting of the police chief, sheriff, district attorney, judges and magistrates to discuss how to prevent more tragedies like this.
“Parents, if your child is starting to display troubling behaviors, please reach out,” he said. “Find a mentor.”
As of this week, the Durham Police Department had under 73% of its sworn officer positions filled, meaning 146 jobs are vacant. Durham leaders approved raises for police last summer, but they’ve yet to make a dent in the vacancy rate.
The department’s staffing levels held above 95% for a decade until 2020, when they began dwindling amid shifts in the economy and in American sentiments toward police.
Anyone with any information about the shooting is asked to call Investigator J. Smith at 919-560-4440 ext. 29365.
You can also submit a CrimeStoppers tip online at durhamcrimestoppers.org or call 919-683-1200. CrimeStoppers pays cash rewards up to $2,000 for information leading to arrests in felony cases and callers never have to identify themselves.
Reporter Lexi Solomon also contributed to this report.
This story was originally published January 15, 2025 at 8:25 AM with the headline "Police looking for this car in the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old boy in Durham."
