When a detective asked him whether he loved his son, Gay Sr. replied: “Let’s say I didn’t dislike him.”
He was taken into custody.
He was booked at the Los Angeles County Jail on suspicion of first-degree murder. His bail was initially set at $100,000. It was later reduced to $30,000. Alberta Gaye posted the bond.
He was 69 years old.
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The news of Marvin Gaye’s death traveled around the world within hours.
Marvin Gaye—one of the most celebrated voices in the history of American music, a man whose songs had defined moments in the lives of millions of people—had been shot and killed by his own father.
The shock was enormous. The grief was immediate. Radio stations interrupted their regular programming. Musicians who had known him or been influenced by him spoke about what they were feeling. Berry Gordy issued a statement. Smokey Robinson, one of Gaye’s oldest friends and colleagues, was publicly bereft.
In Washington, D.C., the city where Marvin Gaye had grown up—the city he had escaped and never quite returned to—city officials declared it a day of mourning.
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PART FOURTEEN: THE AUTOPSY AND THE QUESTIONS
The Los Angeles County coroner’s office conducted an autopsy on Marvin Gaye’s body.
The findings included detection of cocaine in his system. There was also an initial report that PCP was present—phencyclidine, the drug Gaye had been using heavily during the 1983 tour. Later examination of the coroner’s report suggested this finding had been misread, and that the presence of PCP was either not established or not present at the level initially reported.