(Memphis) A 20-year-old man was shot to death early Friday morning at a gas station in Whitehaven.
His girlfriend identified him as Keishawn White.
The girlfriend, who did not want her identity revealed, said she and White had left the Pure Passions nightclub at around 3:00 a.m. with a large group of friends.
They all went to the Hop In gas station at Millbranch and Brooks in Whitehaven.
She said White was pumping gas and joking with her, as she sat in another car.
“Next thing you know, somebody’s riding past, shooting,” she said.
The people responsible are believed to have left the scene in a silver, two-door Mercedes-Benz.
White was the only person hit, even though several shots were fired in the direction of the gas station. The girlfriend said she saw White was hit in the chest, and she saw blood on his back.
She said she held his hand.
“He was telling me to stop, like stop crying…And I was telling him to keep breathing. He was trying so hard to keep breathing.”
The Memphis Fire Department said their ambulance arrived within four minutes of the call.
But by then, she said White had taken his last breath.
“He was looking at me dead in my eyes, when he took his last breath and finally closed his eyes,” she said.
She had never been so close to danger, and the shock of White’s death proved almost surreal.
“How will I feel tomorrow? It really hasn’t sunk in yet. So I want to know, how is tomorrow going to go? How is the next day going to go without this person that I’ve been knowing for so long?”
They had been dating for five years. She thought she might marry him one day. She said White, who had graduated from Kirby High School, was someone who loved to laugh and joke, someone who was extremely giving.
She believes their friends know who the suspects are. Those friends have given that information to police. She said the suspects seem to have a problem with their group of friends, but were not aiming directly at White.
She said she has realized that life is too short for hate. In one moment, she has lost her boyfriend, and his family has lost an only son.
“Together, we’re going to make each other stronger, and just prepare ourselves for each day without him.”
Anyone with information should call Crime Stoppers at 528-CASH.