What can be said is that multiple family members, in multiple accounts, have expressed the belief that Marvin Gaye may have deliberately provoked his father on April 1 with some part of his mind understanding what the provocation might produce.
Alberta Gaye herself said as much to biographers. Other family members said as much to journalists.
Whether this constitutes evidence of suicidal intent, or simply reflects the desperate, drug-addled psychology of a man in profound pain who had lost the capacity to navigate his own life safely—that is a question that cannot be answered with certainty.
What we know is what happened.
Marvin Gaye was shot by his father.
He was taken by paramedics to California Hospital Medical Center.
He was pronounced dead at 1:01 p.m. on April 1, 1984.
He would have turned 45 years old the very next day.
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PART THIRTEEN: AFTER THE SHOTS
Gay Sr. did not run.
After the shooting, he reportedly hid the gun under a pillow or in bedding—it was later retrieved by Gaye’s daughter-in-law Irene and turned over to police. Then Gay Sr. walked to the front porch of the house on Gramercy Place and sat down.
He waited.
When LAPD officers arrived, they found him there. He was calm. He told them what had happened—that he had shot his son, that he had feared being hurt. He did not, by the accounts of the officers who took his initial statement, appear agitated or remorseful in the immediate aftermath.