Sarah Espicho, of Portland, carries a portrait of James Angelo on Sept. 13, 2008, as she walks behind his hearse in a procession through Portland. Fifteen years after Angelo was shot dead in a Mercy Hospital parking lot while working as a security guard, police are asking the public for help solving the crime. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer, file

The Portland Police Department is asking the public for information that can help officers solve the killing of a man who was shot dead 15 years ago Thursday while working as a security guard at a Portland hospital.

On Sept. 7, 2008, police responded to the Mercy Hospital doctors’ parking lot on Winter Street about 4 a.m.

James Angelo, 27, a security guard at the hospital, was conducting a check of the parking lot when he was shot in the back of the neck and killed.

His killing remains unsolved 15 years later.

Angelo – a native of Sudan who came to Portland in 1995 – was a popular employee with a cheerful smile, Mercy Hospital’s then-president, Eileen Skinner, said in 2011. After Angelo was killed, Southern Maine Community College unveiled a scholarship in his name to aid African students studying criminal justice.

Before Angelo was shot, a surveillance camera at a nearby business captured grainy images of two shadowy figures in the vicinity; police said at the time that they believed the figures were likely involved in the shooting.

Police are asking anyone with information to call Detective Andrew Hagerty at 874-8602 or Detective Daniel Townsend at 874-8608.

Anyone who wishes to provide information anonymously can call 874-8584 and leave a message on the department’s crime tip line, or text the keyword PPDME to 847411.