Man dead in Fountain Park

On Saturday, June 1, 2024, police surrounded a basketball court in Fountain Park in Allentown after a 25-year-old man was shot and killed. (Rich Rolen/Special to The Morning Call)

A 25-year-old Allentown man was shot and killed in a city park on Saturday evening.

According to Captain Christopher Diehl, Allentown police responded to a report of a shooting in the 900 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive around 6:30 p.m., the location of Fountain Park.

When police arrived, they found the man had suffered gunshot wounds, Diehl said. The man was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after 7:15 p.m., according to a news release from Lehigh County Coroner Daniel Buglio.

Photos from the scene showed police searching the area around the park’s basketball court, which was surrounded by crime scene tape.

Buglio ruled it a homicide. The autopsy will be performed on Monday, the press release said.

The victim has been identified and his family has been notified. Buglio declined to release the name on Saturday to give the family time to grieve in peace.

The shooting is being investigated by the Allentown Police Department, the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office Homicide Unit and the Medical Examiner’s Office.

Anyone with information or video regarding the shooting is asked to contact the Allentown Criminal Investigation Division at 610-437-7721 or submit a tip using the Tip411 application on the Allentown Police website.