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28-year-old Amanda Blackburn died after being shot during an apparent robbery at her home. Her husband is the pastor at Resonate Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. USA TODAY
Davey and Amanda Blackburn pose with their child, Weston. Amanda was fatally shot in her Indianapolis home Nov. 10, 2015. Two men have been arrested in the slaying.(Photo: Provided by the Resonate Church.)
INDIANAPOLIS<span style="color: Red;">*</span>—<span style="color: Red;">*</span>When Davey Blackburn came home to find his wife lying on the floor, gravely injured, his first thought was that something went horrifically wrong with her pregnancy.
“When I found her still breathing, I thought, ‘This is bad, but if we can get her to the hospital, she is going to be OK,’” Blackburn told a church congregation in South Carolina on Sunday morning.
Blackburn didn’t know someone had been in his Indianapolis home.
USA TODAY
Amanda Blackburn killing part of eight-day crime spree
He didn’t know<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in that moment that his wife,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Amanda Blackburn, suffered from gunshot wounds. She died in the hospital 24 hours later.
Nearly six months have passed since the 28-year-old woman was found by her husband critically injured in their home in the city’s Wynnedale-Spring Hill neighborhood Nov. 10.
The street in the 2800 block of Sunnyfield Court is now quiet. The Blackburn’s home has a for-sale sign in its front yard. The only indication of the horrific violence that took place there are posters in some windows that proclaim, “Thank you<span style="color: Red;">*</span>IMPD!”
Davey Blackburn (left), who served as a youth pastor with NewSpring Church before forming a church in Indianapolis, returned to Anderson to speak with NewSpring Senior Perry Noble about how he has coped since his wife, Amanda Blackburn, was slain six months ago.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Kirk Brown/Independent Mail)
About two weeks after Amanda Blackburn’s death,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>detectives arrested three suspects in connection with her shooting death. The men,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Larry Taylor, Jalen Watson and Diano Gordon<span style="color: Red;">*</span>face charges of murder, robbery and a slew of other felonies. Their cases remain pending.
Court documents allege that Taylor shot Amanda Blackburn after breaking into her home<span style="color: Red;">*</span>amid a spree of burglaries and violence<span style="color: Red;">*</span>with his two co-defendants.
The woman was three months pregnant. Her toddler son Weston was in his crib when his mother was shot.
Davey Blackburn spoke publicly Sunday during a service at<span style="color: Red;">*</span>New Spring Church<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in Anderson, S.C., for the first time since November, when he gave a number of interviews to national television programs.
More than 2,000 people attended the 9 a.m. and 11:15 a.m.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>services at New Spring Church's<span style="color: Red;">*</span>main campus in Anderson. Blackburn also spoke at two services Sunday afternoon, all of which<span style="color: Red;">*</span>were broadcast to the church's<span style="color: Red;">*</span>16 campuses around South Carolina, as well as Resonate Church, Davey Blackburn's church in Indianapolis.
Former NewSpring youth pastor Davey Blackburn (left) talks with NewSpring Pastor Perry Noble about the fatal shooting of his wife, Amanda Blackburn, six months ago. Their conversation was shown on giant video screens at the church in Anderson and broadcast to its 16 campuses across the state, as well as Blackburn's church in Indianapolis.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Kirk Brown/Independent Mail)
At the Anderson church, the conversation between Senior Pastor Perry Noble and Blackburn was shown on three giant screens inside the cavernous 2,400-seat auditorium.
Those that attended the services spoke of the emotional resonance of Davey Blackburn's story.
“There was no dry eye in the room today," said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Darien Rencher, a high school senior in Anderson, S.C.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>“When I see pain, I want to react like Davey reacted.”
Davey Blackburn declined an interview with The Indianapolis Star.
USA TODAY
Funeral for pastor's slain wife draws crowd of 2,000
“It was a very normal day, at the beginning of it,” Davey Blackburn said of the morning he left the house to go to the gym. “You never think that this can be a life-altering day.”
For 24 hours, Davey Blackburn said he prayed for his wife. Friends and family surrounded her bedside. The next day, the doctor told him Amanda Blackburn had no brain function, he said.
Melissa McConnell, left, hugs Millie Lewis as they joined other neighbors thanking IMPD officers who operated roll call, Monday, November 23, 2015, in the Woods of North Kessler neighborhood where Amanda Blackburn was murdered. An arrest has been made in the case. <span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Kelly Wilkinson / The Star)
The couple had met on a blind date neither of them felt would go well. Davey Blackburn was a pastor at New Spring Church in South Carolina before the pair moved to Indianapolis in 2012 with the goal of founding a church. It grew from a bible study composed of four people in their living room, he said, to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Resonate Church<span style="color: Red;">*</span>on the city’s north side.
Recently, Davey Blackburn returned to the home where his wife was killed, he wrote in a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>blog post. He wrote that he reluctantly walked back into the room where he found her.
“The morning I returned, I put worship music in my earbuds, laid down in the spot I found her, wept, prayed and worshiped,”<span style="color: Red;">*</span>he wrote.
Davey Blackburn and his son Weston now live with friends, he wrote in his blog. A question he gets all the time:<span style="color: Red;">*</span>How is Weston doing?
“How is Weston going to grow up without his mom? Every time this thought came to my mind it was a like a dagger was being driven deeper into my stomach,” Davey Blackburn wrote.
But he wrote that his son is doing OK. He attributes that to a network of support from family and friends, and Weston’s age. At 15 months when his mother died, Davey Blackburn wrote Weston was not old enough to absorb the tragedy.
Noble, the pastor of New Spring Church, asked Davey Blackburn on Sunday: “Have you forgiven the men that killed Amanda?”
Larry Taylor, from left, and Jalen Watson are escorted from court at the City County Building after their first hearing in the Amanda Blackburn murder.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Kelly Wilkinson / The Star)
“At the very beginning, when they had not been arrested, it was probably a little bit easier because they were faceless people. I had no idea who these guys were,” Davey Blackburn said. “The first time I felt any kind of anger was when they arrested them, and I saw photos.”
He said he wrestled with the idea, eventually concluding that forgiveness is not an emotion.
“I wasn’t ever going to feel like forgiving them,” he said.
Still, he said he decided to do it.
“Because bitterness and unforgiveness is going to be a cancer for no one else besides me,” he said.
Contributing: Kirk Brown,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Anderson (S.C.)<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Independent Mail.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Follow<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Madeline Buckley on Twitter: @Mabuckley88
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