The above image, Andre, was created by artist Terry Freemark as part of the 2021-2022 Souls Shot Portrait Project exhibition.
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Amanda Mills was no more than 13 years old when she and her brother stood terrified outside their twin home in the Logan section of Philadelphia, watching a neighbor beat up his girlfriend.
Soon enough, an older teenager, Andre “Dre” Blackshear, whose stern expression belied his teddy bear nature, grabbed the assailant and forcefully reminded him not to lay a hand on any woman.
“We just knew that he was our protector,” Amanda remembered. “We’d be safe outside.”
Andre assumed the role of playground peacemaker, hanging out on the periphery to remind kids not to escalate their petty fights into gun duels.
“Hey, that’s not what you need to be doing, young blood,” he counseled, commanding respect. “That’s not where you want to go. You need to get your education.”
“At the end of the day, when you use these, you can walk away,” he said, balling up his fists.
Decades later, Amanda and Andre reconnected on the block and became inseparable. During their 12-year romance, they lived out loud — scheduling regular dates to the movie tavern and Painting with a Twist, celebrating birthdays at Warmdaddy’s soul food restaurant, traveling far beyond Atlantic City, and enjoying their blended family over Amanda’s homemade Filipino feasts. The couple had planned to marry in Las Vegas this March.
Until their future was stolen over a parking spot.
On Oct. 8, 2020 at around 7:30 p.m., Andre drove from his home in Chestnut Hill to Amanda’s place on the 4500 block of North 13th Street in Logan. Fast asleep, Amanda awoke to gunshots outside her door. She found Andre’s empty black Buick Enclave 10 steps from the curb, its passenger window shattered.
Amanda called Andre’s cell phone and heard her special ringtone, “I Do Love You” by Billy Stewart, serenading her from the seat.
Shot 15 times, Andre was pronounced dead at Albert Einstein Medical Center. He had preached tolerance and eschewed guns, but he was ultimately shot and killed allegedly over a parking space, Amanda said. A police investigation is ongoing.
Born on April 22, 1964, Andre attended Olney High School and later earned his GED. Sports were ingrained in his lexicon, and he ran track, played football and competed in swimming.
Andre enjoyed masonry work, Amanda said, “being able to take something so broke down and messed up and he could just smooth it over and make it new.”
An impassioned Eagles fan — “What other team was there?” — he mocked the Dallas “Cowgirls” and was a happy popsicle during the Birds’ Super Bowl victory parade.
He had a penchant for Adidas track suits, with meticulously coordinated sneakers, sunglasses and watches. His favorite color was brown and Amanda nicknamed him “my chocolate brown man.”
In his early years, Andre’s confrontational style attracted trouble, Amanda said, but he soon redirected his focus to championing tolerance and looking out for the most vulnerable.
For three decades, he sent money each month to a friend on death row.
Fifteen years ago, Amanda moved back to the neighborhood following her divorce. Soon, she started to notice that every time she walked past Andre, who was now close friends with her mother, he would straighten his shirt.
For their first date, he arrived 15 minutes late. Amanda reprimanded him about respect before shutting the door in his face.
Andre harassed Amanda’s mom for two weeks until her daughter finally agreed to accompany him to a neighborhood bar. This time, he was 15 minutes early.
Whenever the topic of Andre came up, Amanda chattered away “like a kid in a candy store,” recalled the couple’s longtime friend, Elaine Jones. Andre, the more soft-spoken of the two, could communicate with his “Manda” by simply touching her shoulder.
“Amanda and Dre was the couple that everyone wanted to be,” Elaine said. “It was like they completed each other.”
To cheer Amanda up, Andre would pretend to be the Tin Man from “The Whiz.” He was a guiding force in the lives of Amanda’s two children, including supporting her daughter on dialysis.
After dating Amanda for three years, Andre was shot at the end of her block by a young man attempting to rob him. He endured seven surgeries and lost 68 pounds in the hospital.
“I told him that he still looks absolutely beautiful, my chocolate brown man,” Amanda recalled.
Five years later, the shooter was up for parole and Andre supported letting the man out because he had two children.
Andre proposed to Amanda on Sept. 28, 2019 at a diner in Five Points that resembled a trolley car.
While Amanda was weighing whether to order the oatmeal or ignore her cholesterol and get the creamed chipped beef, Andre swapped her coffee cup for a tiny blue box.
Their breakfast was on the house.
His fiancée, who recently got a tattoo of black shears with wings sprouting from the handles, is easily jolted by sirens and fireworks. To soothe herself, she buries her face in Andre’s chocolate brown sweater.
“I don’t want anyone else,” the 51-year-old said. “God himself would have to say, ‘Amanda, look at Jesus, here he is.’”
Resources are available for people and communities that have endured gun violence in Philadelphia. Click here for more information.
A reward of up to $20,000 is available to anyone that comes forward with information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the persons responsible for Andre’s murder. Anonymous calls can be submitted by calling the Citizens Crime Commission at 215-546-TIPS or the Philadelphia Homicide Unit at 215-686-3334.
Date: 2020-10-08
Location: 4500 N 13th St, Philadelphia, PA
