Man arraigned on murder charge in shooting death of Sacramento high school football coach
An arraignment was held Tuesday afternoon for a man accused of murder in the July 4, 2022, shooting of former Sacramento football star Greg Najee Grimes outside a downtown nightclub.
Tahje Akhalid Michael, 29, made his first appearance in Sacramento Superior Court since his arrest last month in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He was identified as the shooting suspect in Grimes’ death and captured a month after the homicide case was featured on the TV show “America’s Most Wanted.”
Michael had been held in the Cumberland County, North Carolina, detention center until Friday afternoon, when authorities returned him to California and booked him at the Sacramento County Main Jail.
Along with the murder charge, Michael faces a charge of assault on a person with a semiautomatic firearm. Michael appeared in court wearing an orange jail inmate uniform.
Judge Scott Tedmon scheduled Michael to return to court April 18 for further proceedings in his case. He remains in custody at the Sacramento County Jail, where he was being held without bail.
Grimes and Michael each had more than a dozen family and supporters who attended Tuesday’s arraignment. Deputies sat them in the courtroom on opposite sides of the aisle to ensure there wouldn’t be any confrontations or disturbances from the families.
The families sat in the courtroom quietly during the brief hearing, and deputies ushered them out of the courtroom separately after the hearing. Neither family made any comments as they left the courtroom.
The deadly shooting occurred at 16th and L streets. Grimes had just left the Mix Downtown nightclub, and as he was waiting for a street light to change when he was shot, his mother Deborah Grimes has said. Four other people were wounded in the shooting.
Grimes had been a football star at Inderkum High School and Boise State University. He returned to coach at his high school after college. He also worked with special education children and began a staffing firm seven months before the shooting. He was in the process of purchasing a home when he was killed.
The shooting that killed Grimes in 2022 was one of three fatal late-night shootings outside Sacramento nightclubs and bars that year.
On April 3, 2022, alleged gang rivals confronted each other in a brazen shootout near 10th and K streets, where six people were killed and 12 were wounded. The shooting happened about 2 a.m. as many people were leaving the nearby nightclubs and bars.
Alfonso Martinez Jr., 34, of Elk Grove was killed in a Sept. 25, 2022 shootout outside BarWest, a midtown sports bar on J Street near 28th Street. The shooting occurred about 12:45 a.m. shortly after a disturbance inside BarWest led to staff ejecting a group of people from the sports bar.
