In The Ink-Stained Veil

Okay so old-school RE lore is that Leon’s family was involved in some shady shit (kinda implied organized crime but it’s never explicitly stated?) and then got full-on massacred in front of him as a kid. But when the police showed up one of the officers saved him, and that’s why he became a cop.

But like, there was still at least ten years between that and him entering the academy, right?

My headcanon is that he went into the foster system afterwards. Probably started in a “you’re just gonna stay here while we find a relative you can stay with” but there wasn’t anyone and so he just stayed in the system.

However, at least in RE2r, he seems way too well-adjusted to have just gone from crime family to foster care for his entire childhood, so I think he probably wound up with a good family along the way.

Maybe they officially adopted him, maybe not, but they 100% adored that boy and treated him like one of their own. The kind of people who made a personalized stocking for him at Christmas and framed his prom pictures and took him on family vacations for the first time ever.

I like to imagine he stayed in contact with them while in the academy. Sending letters and emails about his training and pictures of him in his cadet uniform.