Family Offers $10K Reward for Information on Son's 2011 Murder

A mother knows when something is wrong.

Bernice Gales said she knew her son Ernest Bo Gales was in trouble when, on Oct. 11, 2012, he didn't come to pick her up, as usual, at the subway after she finished her job at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

And she was right. Later that night police found the 21-year-old shot and killed in the driver's seat of his car in Milford Mill.

It's one year later and police still have no suspects and no motive in the case. So, the Gales family and police are asking for help.

"We need justice for him," said his mother Bernice Gales who was accompanied by her husband Ernest Gales and her daughter, Katrina Carroll. "This is not about us, this is for him. My son was very well-liked. A lot of people were affected by his death."

It was 10:29 p.m. Oct. 19, 2011, when police found the young Gales' body in the 8100 block of Salt Lake Drive.

Through the investigation, police learned that earlier that evening, Gales, a resident of Milford Mill, drove to McDonald's in the 8200 block of Liberty Road to meet a group of people, according to Cpl. Cathleen Batton, who spoke to the media Friday at the Baltimore County Public Safety building in Towson.

"When he left we believe that three suspects followed him out to his car, forced him to drive to the area where he was shot," Batton said.

On Friday police released surveillance video photos of the three suspects.

Police need help identifying them, and need any information anyone might have about this murder, Batton explained.

And the family wants their son's killers to be found, so they're offering $10,000 reward for information that leads to their arrest and conviction.

That's in addition to the $2,000 that Metro Crime Stoppers is already offering, Batton said.

Ernest Bo Gales' family spoke fondly of their loved one, who they said was known as "Neeko."

His mother said he was called that because he had dark black hair just like Steven Seagal in the movie Out for Justice.

Gales had been a DJ and football player for his school, Milford Mill Academy, and wanted to be a music producer. He enjoyed mixing musical beats, his sister and father said.

He worked as a maintenance technician at Genesis Healthcare, a rehabilitation facility, Bernice Gales said. And he was studying HVAC at Community College of Baltimore County Catonsville.

"His long-term dream was to be a musician....The HVAC thing, he said, was to have a career to fall back on," she explained.

When asked what is the most difficult thing for the Gales family since his death, his mother responded: "Living life without him."

She explained that it's also difficult to live with the fact that "someone made a conscious decision to take his life."

She learned after his death that, on the day he died he had participated in a Susan G. Komen for the Cure event to promote breast cancer awareness, research and cure.

"It was his last act of kindness on this earth," she said, encouraging anyone to donate to that cause in his memory.

Anyone with information about the identies or whereabouts of the suspects is asked to call Baltimore County Police at 410-307-2020, or Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-756-2587.

To text a message, send to "CRIMES" (274637, then enter the message starting with "MCS."

Or email a tip through the Metro Crime Stoppers website.

Those contacting Metro Crime Stoppers can remain anonymous.