On the evening of September 17, 2022, David Michael Buck, a Black man from Somerset, was shot on the 700 block of Kensington Avenue in Plainfield, New Jersey. Neighbors reported hearing gunfire around 6:38 p.m.; officers who arrived found Buck wounded in the street. He was taken to a nearby hospital but was pronounced dead shortly after arrival. His death was treated as a homicide.

Investigators from the Union County Prosecutor’s Office Homicide Task Force and the Plainfield Police Department canvassed the area and gathered evidence. Attention turned to 20-year-old Michael Cruz of Plainfield. On October 3, 2022, the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force arrested Cruz in Philadelphia; prosecutors later charged him with first-degree murder and multiple weapons offenses in connection with Buck’s death. The charges remain accusations and Cruz is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

Did anyone in Plainfield see activity on Kensington Avenue that evening or have information about what led up to the shooting?