Omar Bah
May 31, 2006
Baltimore, Maryland

Baltimore Sun
(Baltimore, Maryland)
May 31, 2006

Cabdriver killed in robbery in city

Police questioning 'person of interest' in case

By Richard Irwin
Sun Reporter
Originally published May 31, 2006, 9:04 PM EDT

A Towson-based cab driver was fatally shot in a robbery
Wednesday afternoon in Northeast Baltimore, and homicide
detectives were questioning a man described as a "person of
interest" in connection with the slaying, city police said.

Residents of the Dutch Village townhouse community called 911
about 3:30 p.m. after a Jimmy's Cab vehicle crashed into a utility
pole in the 7000 block of McClean Blvd., near Northern Parkway.

Officers responding to the scene spotted a man running along
East Northern Parkway a few blocks from the crash site and
detained him.

Other officers arrived at the scene of the crash and found the
cabdriver slumped in his seat and bleeding from a bullet wound,
police said.

The driver, whose name was withheld, was rushed by ambulance
to nearby Good Samaritan Hospital and died shortly after arrival.
Police said he had been shot at least once in the upper body, but
it was not immediately known if the bullet had been fired from
inside the vehicle.

Evidence at the scene showed that the driver, who probably had
already been shot, spun the vehicle nearly in a circle and struck
the driver's side of a parked Ford Expedition sport utility vehicle
before crossing the street and crashing into the pole, police said.

An undisclosed sum of money believed taken in the robbery was
found near the cab.

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Baltimore Sun
(Baltimore, Maryland)
June 1, 2006

Boy, 15, charged in fatal shooting of city taxi driver

Robbery victim is first cabbie killed on job this year in Baltimore,
police say

By Brent Jones
Sun Reporter
June 1, 2006, 8:42 PM EDT

A 15-year-old boy was charged Thursday with fatally shooting a
taxi driver in the head during what city police said was a daylight
robbery in a Northeast Baltimore neighborhood.

Damon Holmes of the 6600 block of Harford Road was charged
as an adult with first-degree murder, armed robbery and
handgun violations in connection with the Wednesday attack. He
is scheduled to have a bail hearing in District Court Friday.

The victim, identified in court papers as Oumar Bah, 28, worked
at Jimmy's Cab, where a co-owner of the Towson-based
company described him as intensely private. "He was an
extremely well-loved person," said Josie Kennedy.

Police said Bah's only family may be in Africa, and they had not
yet been able to reach anyone. Police said Bah is the first taxi
driver killed on the job this year in the city.

Charging documents and police describe a brazen afternoon
killing that occurred about 3:30 p.m. in the Dutch Village town
house community. They said Bah had picked up Holmes a few
minutes earlier and, at his request, drove him to the 7100 block
of McLean Blvd.

Officer Nicole Monroe, a police spokeswoman, said the
passenger got out of the taxi, left and then quickly returned with
a gun and got back in the car. She said Bah was then robbed
and shot in the head. Wounded, Bah stepped on the gas pedal,
spinning the car out of control and crashing it into a utility pole,
she said.

Bah was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m. at Good Samaritan
Hospital. Police said they arrested Holmes a short time later,
after witnesses said they saw him run from the scene. Charging
documents say the suspect confessed to the killing.

The last known robbery- turned-killing of a taxi driver in
Baltimore occurred in 2003, when a 60-year-old was shot near
his company's office in North Baltimore. That year, 55 taxi
drivers across the country were killed. Fifty-three taxi drivers
were killed in the U.S. in 2004, according to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics.

Alfred LaGasse, executive vice president of the Taxicab,
Limousine and Paratransit Association, a Kensington-based
nonprofit trade group, said taxi-driver killings are down from late
last decade, when the numbers were in the triple digits. Drivers
then were not required to have shields separating them and the
passengers.

"When you're a 24-hour business, no matter what business
you're in, you tend to have more robberies," LaGasse said.

A woman who answered the phone at Holmes' home said the
family has no comment.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Baltimore, Sun
(Baltimore, Maryland)
June 3, 2006

No bail in cabby killing
Originally published June 3, 2006

A 15-year-old boy charged with first-degree murder in
the death of a Baltimore taxi driver this week was
ordered held without bail yesterday by a District Court
judge.

Damon Holmes, wearing a white T-shirt and green
Army pants, stood and appeared indifferent as Judge
Askew W. Gatewood refused his public defender's
request for a $500,000 bail.

A prosecutor said in court that Holmes, who lives with
his paternal grandmother and three siblings in
Northeast Baltimore, had twice been convicted for
burglary as a minor and has another burglary case
pending. The youth had been on the equivalent of
juvenile probation.

"This statement seems to suggest what is a deliberate
killing of this cabdriver for money," Gatewood said,
referring to the charging documents during the brief
hearing at the Central Booking and Intake Facility. "I
don't like handguns in the hands of anyone. I'm
especially horrified with them in the hands of minors."

Holmes is charged as an adult with killing Oumar Bah
Wednesday afternoon in a Northeast Baltimore
neighborhood. Bah, 28, was a driver for Jimmy's Cab
and had driven the suspect to Dutch Village
townhouse community.

Police said the passenger got out of the taxi, retrieved
a gun and returned to shoot Bah in the head during a
robbery.

Court charging documents say Holmes confessed to
the killing.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

WBAL-TV Channel 11
(Baltimore, Maryland)
June 2, 2006

Wife Of Slain Cabbie Shares His Dreams
West African Wanted To Attend Business School
POSTED: 9:20 am EDT June 2, 2006

BALTIMORE -- Friends of a slain cab driver said the
west African came to America six years ago to follow
his dream of becoming a businessman.

Omar Ba recently moved from Baltimore to Silver
Spring to live with his fiancee, but he still commuted
to Baltimore six days a week to drive his cab.

Ba's fiancee, Nana Kufuor, said he was trying to earn
enough money to go to business school full time. She
said her 28-year- old fiance had many dark days
behind the wheel of his cab.

"He didn't particularly like what he was doing. He had
a lot of ambitions and goals, it was a stepping stone,
but for the time being, he had to do it," Kufuor said.
Click here to find out more!

She said Ba feared for his safety and that he avoided
customers who flagged him down on the street. She
said he also tried to stay out of northeast Baltimore,
but that's where his final fare ended Wednesday
afternoon.

Ba picked up a 15-year-old boy near the Dutch
Village Apartments, who, according to police, shot him
in the head for no apparent reason.

"His face was always lit, no matter how hard his day,"
said Ahmadou Sow, a friend of Ba.

"Omar is the last person I thought who would leave
this Earth in that matter," Kufuor said. "He was not
afraid to die, but he didn't want to go before his time."
Ba and Kufuor were planning a wedding, but now, his
friends are raising money to bury him in his native
country of Mali.

"We want to give the opportunity to his mother to
touch his body," Ahmadou said.

Ba hasn't seen his family since he left Mali for
Maryland six years ago. Kufuor said it's a sad irony
that the African immigrant died pursuing his American
dream, a dream allegedly cut short by a young
African-American man.

"I'm saddened by it. I can't express rage right now
because I'm in an immense amount of grief and I'm
drowning right now, and I'm just trying to stay afloat,"
Kufuor said.

Kufuor said Ba's family never wanted him to go to
America because they believed it was too dangerous.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

WBAL-TV Channel 11
(Baltimore, Maryland)
May 4, 2007

Teen Pleads Guilty In Cab Driver's Murder

POSTED: 4:27 pm EDT May 4, 2007

BALTIMORE -- A 15-year-old Baltimore teen who killed a cab 
driver pleaded guilty Friday to charges of second-degree murder.

State prosecutors said Damon Holmes also pleaded guilty to 
using a handgun in a violent crime and robbery with a deadly 
weapon.

On May 31, Holmes fatally shot Omar Bah, 28, in the head in the 
7100 block of McClean Blvd. Bah had picked Holmes up on 
Northern Parkway.

Prosecutors said that after shooting him, Holmes took money 
from his cab.

Holmes' sentencing is scheduled for July 29. He is currently 
being held without bail.

He faces a maximum of 40 years in prison.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Baltimore Sun
(Baltimore, Maryland)
June 30, 2007

Killing earns teen 40 years

City judge imposes sentence on youth who shot cabdriver

By Julie Bykowicz
Sun reporter
Originally published June 30, 2007

Oumar Bah's family is certain that he would have just given the 
money to the 15-year-old boy in his taxi.

Bah, a 28-year-old driver for Jimmy's Cab, had driven Damon 
Holmes to McClean Boulevard in Northeast Baltimore the 
afternoon of May 31 last year. But instead of paying his fare, the 
teen robbed the cab driver and shot him in the head, killing him.

Yesterday, as a judge in Baltimore Circuit Court sentenced 
Holmes to 40 years in prison, the maximum time allowed under 
his plea agreement, Bah's fiancee, Nana Kufuor, tearfully 
described him as a "model human being and a model citizen."

He worked hard for the Towson-based cab company and sent 
money to his mother in the West African country of Mali.

"He would do anything to help somebody," Kufuor said. "He 
would have helped this young man -- I guarantee you. He would 
have offered up the money. He would have helped him if he had 
asked for help."

Holmes grew up in "a completely broken family" and has an 
array of problems, said his attorney, Ilene Frame. Among them: 
lead paint poisoning, attention-deficit disorder, a low IQ, drug-
addicted mother, absent father, relatives busy with their own 
families.

He was twice convicted in juvenile court for burglaries and was 
awaiting placement in a juvenile facility when he killed Bah.

"He never really had a chance at anything, Frame said of 
Holmes. She contrasted Holmes' broken family to Bah's loving 
one.

Bah hadn't seen his mother in six years, but he kept in touch her 
calling a cell phone he purchased for her.

"When we went to Mali, she was still clutching the cell phone," 
said Mamaa Kufuor, Bah's fiancee's mother. "The difference is 
that phone wasn't ringing anymore."

The Kufuors, originally from Ghana, had grown close to Bah in 
the two years he dated Nana Kufuor, the woman he was to marry 
within weeks of when he was killed.

They traveled to Mali a year ago to console Bah's family. Mamaa 
Kufuor told the judge how Bah's mother, Fatouh Diawara, 
received her son's body for burial.

Diawara stood among mothers who were warmly greeting their 
sons returning from far-away places. "They had flowers. There 
was jubilation," Kufuor said.

But Diawara claimed her son's body as cargo. "There was no 
rejoicing," she said. "There was sheer pain."

Bah's relatives could not understand "such a senseless murder," 
Kufuor said.

Holmes admitted to police that he shot Bah in the head, but he 
said it was an accident that happened while he was loading the 
gun, Frame said.

Assistant State's Attorney Sam Yee, while arguing that Holmes 
should receive 40 years, said the crime should be treated as a 
first-degree murder.

When it was Holmes' turn to speak, he mumbled that he would 
like to tell the family that what he did was wrong. Circuit Judge 
Lynn K. Stewart told him to turn and address them.

"I apologize for what I did," he said. "If you could forgive me, it 
would be good."

His grandmother and an aunt also stood in the courtroom and 
apologized to Bah's family. The grandmother, crying, said, "We 
did not raise him like that."

Neither woman identified herself to reporters.

Frame asked the judge to consider Holmes' age -- he's now 16 -- 
when sentencing him. To someone his age, she said, 40 years 
seems like a lifetime.

Stewart said she deals with reality, not a defendant's perception, 
and sentenced him to 30 years for second-degree murder and a 
consecutive 10 years for using a handgun in the commission of a 
crime of violence. He'll also serve 20 years of concurrent time 
for robbery.

Holmes pleaded guilty to those three charges in May.

After the sentencing hearing, the women of the two families 
embraced and cried in the hallway. "We feel y'all's pain," one of 
Holmes' aunts said. "We're not trying to justify it."

"We appreciate it," Mamaa Kufuor told the aunt. She later said 
she believed the apologies were sincere.

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