Allen W. Blanchard, a 34-year-old white man from Wilmington, North Carolina, was shot in the head on December 23, 2017, at an abandoned lumber mill off NC 210 in the Kelly community of Bladen County and later died at New Hanover Regional Medical Center the following Monday. The shooter was identified as 57-year-old David Wayne Gore of Wilmington, owner of Gore Marine, who had gone to the mill after receiving a tip that a $200,000 boat stolen from his shop earlier in the week had been spotted in Bladen County.

Gore found Blanchard and another Wilmington man, 33-year-old Ryan Ciro Thau, loading scrap metal onto a truck. Authorities later said Blanchard and Thau had no connection to the stolen boat. Gore admitted to dispatchers in 911 calls that he shot Blanchard while searching for the boat. He was initially charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill; that charge was upgraded to second-degree murder after Blanchard died. Gore’s next court date was scheduled for March 16, 2018.

Blanchard’s father, Allen Blanchard Sr., protested that Gore should not have been released on bond and described the shooting as an execution. What did readers in Bladen or Wilmington see or hear that night that could help clarify what happened at the mill?