John Henry Singleton, a 53-year-old man, was spending another routine Saturday evening at the Grab and Go Market on Morehead Avenue in Durham, North Carolina, when the rhythm of his workday was abruptly broken by gunfire. He had built a life that stretched from his birth on July 14, 1972, to a community-centered existence in Durham, where friends and regular customers knew him not just as a cashier, but as someone whose warm humor and kindness could briefly lighten their burdens.
In the quiet of the small store, hemmed in by the familiar aisles and countertop where he greeted people day after day, the ordinary gave way to chaos in a matter of moments.
Shortly before 9:30 p.m. on November 15, 2025, police were dispatched to the 1600 block of Morehead Avenue after reports of a shooting inside a business. When officers arrived, they found Singleton inside the store suffering from gunshot wounds, the scene marked by the harsh glare of emergency lights cutting across the storefront in the November darkness. He was rushed to a nearby hospital with life-threatening injuries, but despite the efforts of medical staff, he later died. Police records classified the incident as a homicide involving a gunshot wound, underscoring that what had begun as a typical evening at a neighborhood mini-mart had ended in deadly violence.
In the days that followed, investigators worked to piece together what happened inside the convenience store that night. Authorities emphasized that the case remained an active homicide investigation and, as of their most recent public statements, they had not released information about a suspect, a motive, or any arrests connected to the killing. Instead, they turned to the public for help, asking anyone who might have seen or heard something to contact a named investigator with the Durham Police Department or to reach out anonymously through Durham CrimeStoppers. CrimeStoppers, in turn, offered a cash reward of up to $2,000 for information that could lead to an arrest in the case, a stark reminder that whoever pulled the trigger had not yet been brought to justice.
Even as detectives focused on leads and tip lines, family, friends, and community members focused on the person they had lost. On an online memorial dedicated to victims of gun violence, those who knew Singleton described him as funny, warm, and friendly, the kind of presence who brought a smile to customers as they stepped up to the counter at the Grab and Go Market. He was remembered as someone who encouraged others and offered wisdom and comfort, often without making a show of it, simply lifting people's spirits during the small transactions of everyday life. His obituary confirmed the details of his life and death and set out the arrangements to lay him to rest: a visitation at Holloway Memorial Funeral Home in Durham on November 21, 2025, followed by a funeral service the next day at the Brunswick Waccamaw Building in Whiteville, North Carolina, and interment at George Cemetery in Whiteville. In the messages left for him and for his family, there is a sense of a life cut short in a place that should have been safe, and of a community left waiting for answers as they grieve a man whose absence is felt in every familiar corner of the store where he once stood.
