Blake Mohs Vigil Scheduled In Pleasanton Friday

PLEASANTON, CA — A candlelight vigil has been scheduled Friday in memory of Blake Mohs, the 26-year-old Home Depot employee killed April 18 while trying to prevent a theft from the store.

The vigil will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the parking lot of the Boy Scouts of America’s Golden Gate Area Council at 6601 Owens Drive in Pleasanton, according to an administration-approved flier and post in a local Facebook group. Mohs was a Boy Scout and Eagle Scout who volunteered with the organization and planned to get married this summer at Camp Royaneh, a scouting camp where he met his fiancée.

In lieu of flowers, the Mohs family has asked that contributions to honor Blake be made to help fund capital needs at Camp Royaneh. Contributions can be made here.

A GoFundMe fundraiser for the Blake Mohs Memorial Fund has raised $36,150 from 488 donors as of Wednesday afternoon. The Mohs family hopes to use some of the funds to provide protective life-saving vests to protect other security guards.

The Mohs family has also asked the community not to bring any signs promoting a political agenda.

Mohs died last Tuesday at the Home Depot at 6000 Johnson Drive. According to documents from the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, he tried to intervene when a woman walked out of the store with a Dewalt box she didn’t pay for. A struggle ensued in the parking lot, and a suspect, since identified as 32-year-old Benicia Knapps, shot him. Emergency crews arrived and took him to Eden Hospital, but he succumbed to his injuries.

Two suspects, Knapps and David Guillory, have been detained and charged with a slew of felonies. They are being held at Santa Rita Jail.

Mohs is remembered as a giving person and "kid at heart" who enjoyed spending time with those he loved. He relished all things Disney, baking cookies with his family, and volunteering for the Boy Scouts and Eagle Scouts. He was also a counselor at Camp Royaneh, a church youth leader, and a volunteer cadet with the Newark Police Department.

“He has my heart,” his mother Lorie told ABC-7 in an interview. “My firstborn, and there’s a hole without him here….he’s the heart of everyone.”