LINCOLN COUNTY, N.C. — Curtis Baxter III planed to take his 10-year-old son Sire to his first day of fifth grade on Monday.
His mother, Keyonia Holloway, tried to console him instead.
“Your dad’s in heaven,” said Holloway. “He’s watching over you.”
Baxter attended the Tucker’s Grove Camp Meeting Saturday. It’s a church retreat and revival that spans a century and a half.
Someone who stayed there told Channel 9 after worship, and with children playing in the confined area, someone shot Baxter.
An onlooker took a picture of a crowd gathered around as medics worked on him.
“The last thing I heard his dad say, that people are saying is, ‘Cut my phone on. I just want to see my son,’” said Holloway.
Baxter died at the hospital. Holloway can’t understand why someone would shoot him at a church function.
“No enemies. He was always life of the party,” she said. “Whoever did this took away a great father, a great son, brother, cousin.”
Now Holloway wants answers for her son’s sake. The sheriff said there were several witness, but they are still trying to make an arrest.
“I want justice,” she said. “Just please let somebody know what happened.”
Sunday morning Sire called his father several times with no answer.
He later learned why his father couldn’t reply. He decided to skip the first day of school.
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