Man to stand trial
for murder at Lower NE bar

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

A lot of birthday parties climax with the guest of honor blowing out the candles on a cake following a round of Happy Birthday to You.
Instead, a round of gunfire sent guests scrambling during a birthday bash at a Lower Northeast bar one night last February. One of the guests, Jared Taylor, suffered a fatal wound to the chest in the melee.
Last week, the alleged gunman was ordered to stand trial for first-degree murder as the victim’s widow and parents sobbed at accounts of the killing.
Aaron Blue, 25, of Frankford, remains behind bars. He is ineligible for bail because of the capital charge against him.
The shooting occurred outside of the Empty Glass Bar, at Adams Avenue and Claridge Street, just before 2 a.m. on Feb. 24, after an argument inside the venue spilled into the street.
Taylor, a 29-year-old father and husband from the 600 block of Levick St., was described by police as a peace-maker in the dispute, trying to break things up when Blue allegedly pulled a gun and shot him twice.
The first shot grazed the victim’s arm before a second slug entered his shoulder and passed through his torso, breaking several ribs and damaging vital organs. He died in a local hospital about a half-hour later.
Blue fled but was captured in May hiding out in West Philadelphia. Civilian tips helped lead police to the suspect.
A woman who was involved in the fight and witnessed the shooting testified at Blue’s Aug. 7 preliminary hearing.
"I was on the ground. Somebody helped me up. There was still fighting going on. I got up, and somebody said, ‘He’s got a gun,’" LaShonda Williams told the court.
Williams attended the party with her husband Steven, a cousin of the man whose birthday they were celebrating. Taylor also was related to the birthday honoree.
A short time before the shooting, Williams said, she left the party to drive a friend home. When Williams returned to the bar, several "young girls" were dancing provocatively, Williams said, while the men were "throwing money around."
Blue, Taylor and Williams’ husband were all there, the witness said.
Williams testified that when she told her husband to stop taking part in the activity, one of the dancing girls confronted her.
"She said, ‘You don’t think anyone wants your husband,’" the witness recalled. "I said, ‘I’m not talking to you, I’m talking to him.’"
Nonetheless, a fistfight ensued involving the women. Someone pushed the dispute out the door. Williams remembers getting hit in the head and being on the bottom of a pile.
As she regained her feet, the shooting began.
"Everybody started running. I heard a shot. That’s when I saw (Blue) pointing a gun at Jared," Williams said.
The men were standing face to face when Blue fired twice, according to the witness. Taylor "just fell," she said. Blue allegedly took off in a white Cadillac toward Roosevelt Boulevard.
After his arrest, Blue admitted to his involvement in the shooting, Assistant District Attorney Michael Barry claimed. The prosecutor read a statement by the defendant to homicide investigators claiming that he pulled the gun in self-defense and that the men were wrestling for it when it fired.
"We was fighting, and (Taylor’s) homies rolled up on me and had me up against a car," Blue allegedly told police. "We were tussling for the gun, and it went off.
"The (expletive) just happened. I didn’t plan it. I had it out swinging it hoping to back them up."
Barry argued that the forensic evidence contradicts Blue’s statement because the shots were fired from a range of several feet.
Williams said she recognized Blue because he had been "hitting on" her at the bar earlier.
Taylor was the father of three children and was raising the youngest two — Zhane, 12, and Jared Jr., 7 — with his wife, Malika. Taylor worked for Toll Brothers home builders.
In addition to Taylor’s widow, his parents, William Thompson and Elizabeth Taylor, attended the hearing.
A trial date has not been set. ••
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com