Victim gunned down behind furniture store claimed suspect was stalking him

A man gunned down behind an Indian Land furniture store claimed the suspect was stalking him for years.

Court documents detail how many times 74-year-old Gary Herendeen tried to report the suspect to police.

Channel 9’s crime reporter Hunter Sáenz spoke to people who knew the Herendeen well.

They told Sáenz Henderdeen was a kind soul who loved the outdoors.

Herendeen had several run-ins with his accused killer and some wonder if more could have been done to prevent his killing.

Herendeen was found shot to death in his van parked behind Designers Marketplace on Yarborough Road in Indian Land earlier this month.

Police arrested Herendeen’s former roommate, Calvin Lamarr Allen, 44, of Charlotte, for the crime.

The two had a history of arguments and in a search warrant, Allen was called Herendeen’s stalker.

“It’s definitely scary,” said a woman, who didn’t want to be identified.

She lives across the street from where Herendeen recently lived on Shenandoah Avenue in Charlotte’s Chantilly neighborhood.

She remembered multiple visits by police.

“It was just an unhinged stalker that had been targeting them for years,” the woman told Sáenz on Wednesday. “They’ve had windows broken, multiple attacks on the building and that they knew who it was, but they couldn’t do anything about it.”

Herendeen called the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department seven times since 2024 alleging Allen had vandalized or damaged his car, even leaving a threatening note on Herendeen’s car parked on Shenandoah Avenue. It read: “Leave my car alone. Next, I will burn your building down. If you think I’m playing, try me :)”

Allen recently lived on Bear Street in west Charlotte.

Detectives used Flock cameras and traced his car from his home, down to the crime scene, which was a scene he visited three times in two days.

Police told the victim to pull out a restraining order against Allen in the past but there was little more they could do at the time, according to a warrant.

Detectives believe Allen used a tracking device on Herendeen’s van to know where he was when he was killed.

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