In the early morning hours of Sunday, June 2, 2024, a sense of unease settled over the 19700 block of North Frederick Avenue in Gaithersburg, Maryland. At approximately 5:11 a.m., the quiet was shattered by reports of a shooting, prompting a swift response from both Gaithersburg Police and Montgomery County Police officers. Upon their arrival, they discovered a man suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. The victim was identified as 30-year-old Ange Gadji, a male resident of the area.
He was immediately transported to a nearby hospital for medical attention, but tragically, he succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead.
The investigation into Gadji's death was quickly taken over by detectives from the Montgomery County Department of Police – Major Crimes Division. The case was officially classified as a homicide following an autopsy conducted by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore, which confirmed that the cause of death was a gunshot wound. As detectives delved into the circumstances surrounding the shooting, they began to piece together the events that led to the fatal encounter. The community was asked to come forward with any information that could lead to an arrest, with the possibility of a cash reward for tips that proved fruitful.
Within a few days, the investigation yielded a significant breakthrough. Detectives identified 39-year-old Anthony Blackford as the primary suspect in the murder of Ange Gadji. An arrest warrant was promptly issued, and on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Blackford was taken into custody. He has since been charged with the murder of Gadji and is being held without bond at the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit. The arrest brought a swift, though not final, development to a case that had tragically cut a young man's life short.
