Diana Gardin sobs as she grips onto a picture frame holding a collage of three photographs of her son Kendal Gardin's life.
Kendal Gardin was born in 1988, the oldest of her seven children. But he'll always be Diana's baby boy.
And so the picture frame contains three photos: Kendal as an infant, Kendal as a toddler, Kendal donned in a cap and gown from a Head Start graduation. They're the only physical photographs of Kendal she has in her house, the rest long since uploaded to Facebook.
It's a picture frame Diana has struggled to look away from since early Friday morning, when her world came crashing down.
Kendal was gunned down walking to his home on Terra Drive. Before police could deliver the news to Diana personally, she arrived to the scene frantically hoping she could save him.
Kendal died in a front yard. He was just 30 years old.
"I haven't ate since it happened," Diana said Sunday, tears in her eyes. "Haven't had no sleep. Everybody's hurting but nobody's going to hurt like a momma hurt and a daddy hurt. No. They're not 'cause we're the ones who held that little bitty baby. And I told him I was going to protect him."
Gastonia Police have said little about the case, other than Kendal was shot in the street near the Hoffman Homes apartments on Saluda Drive, one street across from where he lived.
But his family believes they know who pulled the trigger, and are seeking quick justice.
"What I would tell him is that, 'I hope they find you. I hope they find you soon because I won't have as much mercy as they will,'" Charmin Gunning said. "He killed my son like a dog, like he was nothing. He was so much more than that. If he had only seen the humanity in this man maybe he wouldn't have been able to pull that trigger."
Though not Kendal's biological father, Gunning came into the boy's life before he was even born. He began dating Diana when she was 17 years old and 3 1/2 months pregnant, and raised him as his own.
It was Gunning that stoked Kendal's passion in cooking. Family said he had a gift for grilling steaks and ribs, and was considering enrolling into culinary school before his premature death.
"It was a competition with Kendal," Gunning said. "As he got older he thought he was better than me at the grill. We used to joke always we'd have a contest one day where everybody could pick."
But Kendal's life was complicated, too. His parents acknowledged he hung with the wrong crowd and spent several stints in jail.
A couple days before the incident, Gunning said he discussed moving the family "somewhere out in the country," because he figured it would be impossible for his son to disengage from negative influences threatening his well-being.
"We wanted to move away from this place and go someplace nobody knows your name," Gunning said. "We knew this place was bad for him. As long as my son stayed in this town it would've been impossible for him to stay out of the wrong element because he knew everybody."
For all his flaws, Kendal succeeded in finding the good in people, Diana said.
He had a loving heart, and an unforgettable smile.
"One thing they can't say is that boy didn't have a big heart," she said. "He was trying to change his life, he really was."
Diana walked out of the family's living room several times during a 30-minute interview Sunday morning. Her children lean to the matriarch of the family for wisdom, for guidance, for emotional support.
She doesn't like being the one who shows emotion, but she can't fight it when talking about her son.
"As long as people don't really talk to me, I'm good," she said. "I'm calm. I listen to Christian music, listen to the music that Kendal always loved. I look at videos on Facebook. The funny jokes, the dancing me and him would do together."
At least four crosses decorate the family's living room.
They say faith has helped them bond through the tragedy.
"He loved the Bible and he loved church," said Mahalia Gunning, Kendal's sister. "He may not have gone to church all the time but God was within him. And now that he's gone, Kendal's within us."
Charmin Gunning believes the shooter had multiple intentions with his actions.
He succeeded in ending Kendal's life. But, Gunning says, he'll never accomplish his goal of ripping the family apart.
"I told my wife he's not going to tear this family apart," Gunning said. "He took my son but he's not going to take my family with him. We're going to stick together and we're going to make it through this and everyday we'll get stronger."
Kendal leaves behind an 8-year-old son. His family has started a GoFundMe page to raise funeral expenses.
You can reach Adam Lawson at 704-869-1842 or on Twitter @GazetteLawson.
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