The death of Calvin Blackshire Jr., in part livestreamed on Facebook, is one of 36 Cumberland County homicides in 2017.
Calvin Blackshire Jr. brushed his toddler-aged son’s hair as he walked out of his home in Hope Mills on Jan. 19, 2017.
Hours later, Blackshire lay dying of a gunshot wound in the parking lot of a Fayetteville motel as an onlooker livestreamed his last breaths on Facebook.
“He just started filming,” said his mother, Pamela Blackshire. “He didn’t do anything to help.”
Her son became the second homicide victim of 2017, one of 36 reported throughout Cumberland County for the year.
Fayetteville police investigated 26 homicides, including a September incident in which two men were killed while sitting in a vehicle in the parking lot of the Smokey Bones restaurant on Skibo Road.
The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office handled a total of eight homicide investigations in 2017; Hope Mills and Spring Lake police departments had one each.
The Sheriff’s Office has one unsolved murder, that of Byron Ray. The city has two homicide investigations still open, one of which is the death of Blackshire.
For Calvin Blackshire Sr. and his wife, every day that passes without an arrest and knowing that their son’s killer is still out there is agonizing.
“It’s hard,” Pamela said. “I can’t even explain it to you how it is. The only thing that I can tell you is that with God’s help, we get through it.”
Blackshire’s parents don’t know why or how he ended up at the Motel 6 at 2076 Cedar Creek Road, near Interstate 95. Having grown up in a military household, Calvin wasn’t one to go looking for trouble, his parents said.
Besides, he was a new father to Calvin Louis “Tre” Blackshire III, born in December 2015, and he was just beginning to adapt to the role.
“He was just learning how to be a good dad,” his parents said.
The last night of Blackshire’s life, he left the home in Hope Mills, where he lived with his parents. His mother said she thought he was going to his job at the Walmart Distribution Center on Sand Hill Road.
TIMELINE: 2017 Homicides
Usually, Pamela said, she would wake up in the night and if her son wasn’t home, she would text him and he would respond.
That night, she slept through until about 3:45 a.m. when the doorbell rang. Thinking her son had forgotten his key, Pamela went to the door and saw two uniformed police officers.
“They asked if I was Pamela Blackshire and I said yes," she said. "They said they needed to talk to me about Calvin.”
Her first thought was what had her son done to get in trouble with the law.
Blackshire had been in an accident, they told her. When she asked where he was, the officers said he was at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center. She asked if she and her husband could go see him.
“They said he didn’t make it,” Pamela said. “That’s how we learned about it.”
Later, the Blackshires learned that their son’s final moments were livestreamed on Facebook by a Raeford man who claimed he was sitting in his car when he saw Blackshire.
Police ruled the man out as suspect. The Blackshires ruled the man out as a compassionate human being.
Pamela said the video was posted with a caption, “Do you want to see a dead man?”
“To sit down," she said, "and film somebody and then say ‘Do you want to see a dead body’ and then say, ‘It’s going down across the river.’ It’s as if he was on a sideshow. I’ll never get over that.”
The Blackshires still have hope of finding their son’s killer and hope someone will come forward with information that will lead to an arrest.
Calvin Sr. believes no one has spoken up because of fears of retaliation.
“I don’t think it’s registered with them, but had it happened to one of their family, they’d be the first ones to ask somebody to come forward and tell what you know,” he said.
Pamela has another theory.
“I think some people are just evil period. They have to be,” she said.
The Blackshires and their 15-year-old daughter have struggled through the past year — Thanksgiving, Christmas, Blackshire’s birthday and that of his son.
“I don’t have the words to express the hurt or trauma that we’ve gone through in this past year. I just don’t have the words,” Pamela said.
Calvin Sr. finds it hard to speak about his son’s death.
“I can’t really even get past it because of the unknown,” he said. “For me, even when I try to think about it, it’s hard for me. I can’t talk about it. I can’t grieve. I’m not going to get past it. He has my name.”
For now, the Blackshires are relying on faith and therapy to get them through the dark times.
“I just wish we knew what to say in order to convince somebody to tell us what happened,” Pamela said. "I want to know. I just want to know.”
There’s a reward of $6,000 for information that leads to finding Blackshire’s killer. Anyone with information should call Fayetteville police Sgt. P. Orellano at 988-6543 or Crimestoppers at 483-TIPS (8477).
Staff writer Nancy McCleary can be reached at nmccleary@fayobserver.com or 486-3568.
MAP: Location of 2017 Homicides