April 1, 1984: Morning. Marvin Gaye is in his bedroom. Gay Sr. and Alberta argue again. Marvin intervenes again. This time, it escalates.
At approximately 12:30 p.m., Marvin pushes his father out of the room. They fight in the hallway and in the bedroom. Marvin strikes his father multiple times. Alberta separates them. Gay Sr. retreats.
Eight minutes pass.
At 12:38 p.m., Gay Sr. returns with the .38 revolver.
He fires once, striking his son in the chest.
He fires again, point-blank through the shoulder.
Marvin Gaye falls.
Frankie finds him.
The paramedics come.
At 1:01 p.m., Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr. is pronounced dead at California Hospital Medical Center.
He would have been 45 years old the next day.
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THE QUESTION OF WHAT THE GUN MEANT
Let’s stay with the gun for a moment.
The .38 Smith & Wesson that Gay Sr. used to kill his son was an unregistered firearm. It had been given to Gay Sr. by Marvin Gaye himself—given on Christmas Day, 1983, approximately three months before the shooting.
Gaye’s stated rationale, at the time he arranged for his bodyguard Andre White to procure the weapon, was protection from the would-be assassins he believed were targeting him. He was in the grip of paranoia so severe that it had affected his ability to tour, to sleep, to function. The threat he perceived was not real in any externally verifiable sense—but to Marvin Gaye, it was entirely real.
So he arranged for a gun to come into the house.