A knock came at the front door early Thanksgiving morning, not long before sunrise.
It was at the South St. home where Herbert Harvey Jr. lived with his parents and four younger sisters.
Harvey had been shot.
His mother, the Rev. Elaine Harvey, raced to America Street. She saw her first-born child lying motionless on the pavement.
"That's when I just lost it," Harvey said. She tried to tear past the yellow crime scene tape. Charleston police held her back, explaining that her only son was dead. He had been shot once in the head and twice in the chest.
"It was a very bad day for me," she said Friday. "Today is better."
Herbert Harvey Jr., 29, never went looking for a fight, said his father, the Rev. Herbert Harvey.
His son was known around the Charleston East Side neighborhood for offering a helping hand to the elderly, teens and children. He made sure the kids of Luther Tyrese Taylor, 29, got to the Head Start nursery.
Taylor was fatally wounded on America Street in April.
"Crime and violence, it just doesn't work," Herbert Harvey said. He and his wife are pastors at Gethsemane Baptist Church on Romney Street. "And if you are killing one another," he said, "you are killing out a whole generation."
On Thursday, police arrested Delvon Antonio Collins, 21, of Aiken Street and charged him with murder in connection with the shooting death of Herbert Harvey Jr.
The elder Herbert Harvey said the family is taking the situation one day at a time. "We're praying and asking the Lord for health and strength," he said.
The Harveys do not know Collins. Herbert Harvey, 58, said his son had been provoked into a fight a year ago by someone other than Collins. The person reportedly said, "I'm going to kill you, and your Daddy is going to preach at your funeral," Herbert Harvey said.
The elder Harvey said he thought his son's death was connected to the fight last year: His son won the fight, and the fatal shooting was retaliation. An eyewitness provided the information, Herbert Harvey said.
Details were sketchy of what happened Thursday between Collins and Herbery Harvey Jr. on America Street.
"It began as a verbal dispute between the suspect and the victim," said police spokesman Charles Francis. A police report on the shooting would be available Monday, he said.
The elder Herbert Harvey said the East Side's problems are caused by people who come to the neighborhood from elsewhere.
The young men in the neighborhood causing trouble need to be brought to a relationship with the Lord, and they need mentors because most of them are raised without fathers, he said. The troublemakers' parents are on drugs, and they are left to raise themselves. They end up running with the wrong crowd, he said.
Funeral arrangements for Herbert Harvey Jr. are pending. He attended Trident Technical College where he was studying to be a building contractor. His father said he is praying over his Sunday sermon topic, which he hasn't selected.
Elaine Harvey said her son was spending time with a merchant seaman friend who was in town for a visit. The last time the elder Herbert Harvey saw his son, they were laughing and joking on the porch about 9 p.m. Wednesday.
Elaine Harvey, 51, said she had a dream shortly before the knock on the door. In it, one man was standing and two men were running away from him. She didn't recognize her son in the dream but considered it a premonition of what was to come.
"God shows us things," she said.