WARREN — Joe Bailey was in his apartment on South Feederle Drive SW Wednesday night when he saw his friend, Azhiek E. Bennett, walking across a parking lot toward the apartment where the mother of his 4-month-old child lives.

When Bailey turned around and sat down to watch the CBS television show “Criminal Minds,” he heard three gunshots. Getting up from his chair and looking out the door, Bailey, 60, saw Bennett, 22, of 2746 Draper St. SE, sprawled on the ground just outside 2250 S. Feederle Drive SE.

“I didn’t see anyone speeding away in a car or running away,” Bailey said. “I saw Azhiek on the ground.”

Bailey hurried across the street to Bennett. Another friend, Brad Smith, also ran to see what could be done to help.

“He was gasping for air,” Bailey said. “He was taking short quick breaths.”

Bailey said they were working to keep him alive until the police and an ambulance arrived.

“I figured Azhiek was young,” Bailey said. “If we could keep him breathing, he could be saved.”

Bailey said he did not notice a bullet wound until Bennett’s shirt was lifted by the emergency workers.

“They did not cover his face when they put him in the ambulance,” Bailey said. “He might have still been alive.”

Bailey described Bennett’s girlfriend also coming out of the apartment. She was screaming.

“It’s understandable,” he said.

Other neighbors, Tom Bartholomew, 83, and Rodney Bartholomew, 50, said they heard three to five shots.

“There were three shots and then two more,” Tom Bartholomew said. “I wasn’t going outside. You don’t know what will happen.”

Others also came out of the housing complex to see what was happening.

When Trumbull Metropolitan Housing Authority police officers arrived, they immediately worked to control the size of the crowd that began coming out to the scene.

Brittany Sayers, whose sister, Skylar, was Bennett’s girlfriend and the mother of his 4-month-old daughter, described him a young man who was doing the best he could to support his daughter and her sister.

“He loved his daughter,” Sayers said. “My sister is pregnant with their second child. They were a young couple just trying to establish themselves.

“He worked as a mechanic at his father’s auto shop,” she said. “He liked working on cars. He liked trying to make people laugh. He was the type of person who would give the shirt off his back even to people he really did not know.”

Bennett’s father, Michael Salsgiver, still was shook up about the news of his child’s death.

“He was with me about 15 minutes before he was shot,” Salsgiver said. “He worked with me every day at the shop. He lived at my house.”

Salsgiver said he does not know anyone who may have wanted to harm his son.

Warren police are investigating the murder.

It is the second homicide in Warren this year. On Jan. 8, police found the body of D’Anthony Williams, 22, in a field in the 1400 block of West Avenue NW after neighbors reported hearing gunshots. No one has been arrested in that murder.