SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As the investigation into the fatal shooting on downtown Sacramento’s L Street continues, friends and family gathered Tuesday night for a vigil to remember the victim, Greg Najee Grimes.
His family says he paid off his student loans last week and was just approved for a home loan. His mother, Deborah Grimes, says she last called her son on FaceTime to make 4th of July plans.
“And then he said, ‘I love you, I love you.’ I said, ‘I love you, Najee. Baby,’” said Grimes.
The call happened four hours before the 31-year-old Inderkum High School football coach was killed in a shooting outside of the Mix Downtown nightclub that left four others injured.
"This is the most horrific thing. It is the most indescribable… it's so painful! It's so wrong! Nobody's kid should be killed, but my baby? Oh man, he was so not deserving of that,” said Grimes.
Hundreds of former teammates, students, colleagues, family, and friends gathered to remember the young father.
His own coaches say Inderkum’s revered athletics program wouldn’t have existed if it wasn’t for the alumnus who always led by example.
“We built the whole program around Greg,” said former coach, Terry Stark. “That was the first guy out here at Inderkum High School. They all wanted to be like him and we’d tell him everyday – act like this, talk like that, you need to respect people like that, you need to be at practice on time, you need to treat your parents right, you gotta have your grades – and they knew that’s how he did it, and that’s what they did! We had 60 kids sign after that.”
Grimes leaves behind his parents, a young son and his mother, and countless lives touched.
Investigators say they’ve recovered 11 shell casings, collected surveillance video, and tracked down eyewitnesses.
Police are asking for the community's help and are looking for any video evidence that might have been captured during the shooting.
Any evidence can be uploaded to the Sacramento Police Department Evidence Submission Portal HERE or can be given to the Sacramento Valley Crime Stoppers at (916) 443-4357. Sacramento Police are offering a reward of up to $1,000 to any witnesses who have information regarding this investigation.
