'You're Not Alone': Neighbor Recounts Comforting Slain Husband of BPD Lieutenant; Mervo High School Student Charged In Killing

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Neighbors in the 1400-block of Walker Avenue are still haunted by the homicide that happened there on January 25th. This week, police announced they had arrested an 18-year-old Mervo High School student for the killing.

"The first thing I heard were the shots obviously. There were about 8 or 10," said Danny, who asked WJZ not to share his last name.  "I saw two feet on the ground and the car door was open. I started walking towards it. Then, when I saw the blood, I ran towards it."

The victim, James Blue, had just been shot multiple times at close range. Blue, a father of three and the husband of a Baltimore police lieutenant, was waiting for an appliance delivery when the gunman opened fire.

"He was gasping," Danny told WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren. "When I saw his eyes begin to roll back is when I started to talk to him."

Danny said he wanted to grab Blue's hand, but other bystanders told him not to do so. He regrets that he listened to them. "That still sort of haunts me, but what I did do was tell him, 'You're not alone.' I said, Can you hear me?' I just kept telling him he's not alone and that help was coming."

Police arrested Sahiou Kargbo for the killing. Kargbo is 18 years old and attends Mervo high school, also in Northeast Baltimore.

According to charging documents, Kargbo is a member of the Harford and 28th Street gang and is "known to carry a firearm on his person regularly." He is also charged with an armed robbery at a Wendy's where he used to work in Parkville.

Baltimore County Police executed a search warrant on Kargbo's Northeast Baltimore home about 10 minutes from the murder scene and found several weapons including a semiautomatic handgun, ammunition and "extended magazines and drum magazines."

Investigators connected the teen to the armed robbery through a Lyft receipt where he used his nickname, Shaq.

Baltimore City police linked Kargbo to the homicide through surveillance video, including from Mervo High.

The charging documents describe the crime in chilling detail. They said Kargbo walked up to Blue's Honda and "then started to shoot into the vehicle from the rear of the vehicle. The suspect then continued to shoot up the right passenger side of the vehicle. Mr. Blue exited the vehicle when the suspect stood over him and shot him several more times."

Police wrote that Kargbo was driving a stolen Hyundai and had parked nearby off Loch Raven Boulevard. A DEA agent working on a separate case took photos of him and two other individuals the day before the killing, believing they were acting suspiciously. The men were carrying large bags from a nearby home across the street from the victim's property.

Still shaken by what he saw, Danny created his own memorial for Blue—a candle with a picture he cut from the Crime Stoppers flyer. "Every day I thank him for his life. I hope his family will find some solace some comfort in—although they weren't there—that someone was….that he wasn't alone, that people cared, wanted him to survive. Unfortunately, that did not happen."

In:
• Baltimore
• Murder
• Baltimore City
• Crime