Family grieves father of four who died in South Park fire after pleading for help on Facebook

The family of the construction worker who went on Facebook Live to plead for assistance shortly before he perished in last week’s massive fire in South Park is asking the public to help provide relief for the four young children he left behind.

As of Tuesday afternoon, a GoFundMe set up by his aunt, Taclisha Grier of Kannapolis, had raised more than $8,000 in memory of Demonte Tyree Sherrill. The Charlotte resident and native of North Kannapolis died Thursday along with co-worker Reuben Holmes, after they were trapped on the sixth floor of an apartment building being built along Fairview Road. Sherrill was 30.

In an interview with Charlotte Observer news partner WSOC-TV, Sherrill’s parents said their son had four children — 13, 12, 10 and 5 years old — and that he took the job working for an Atlanta-based door and window company to provide for them.

Sherrill’s mother, Onita Sherrill, and father, Terry Campbell, did not return messages left by the Observer.

Chrystina Stovall, Sherrill’s fiancee, declined to be interviewed on Tuesday, saying only: “We need time to grieve. ... We need some time to take this all in.”

‘He was screaming for help’

Sherrill made not just local but also national and international headlines after news spread that he had broadcast one of the final minutes of his life on social media as smoke trapped him and his co-worker in the burning building.

“The building’s on fire, and I can’t get out,” he says into his cellphone while holding onto cloth to cover his mouth. “It’s getting harder and harder for them to see us.” Sherrill shouts for help several times before the video cuts out.

Onita Sherrill told WSOC she was watching the scene as it played out in real time, and praying that he would be able to find his way to safety. “But just from the (Facebook) Live and the way the room filled up with smoke, I didn’t see there being any hope at that time,” she said.

Stovall, Demonte Sherrill’s fiancee, told WCNC last week that the floor he was on collapsed before they could get to him. “I was on the phone with him,” she said, fighting back sobs, “when he was in that building, and it was burning down and he was screaming for help.”

Meanwhile, Sherrill’s father, Terry Campbell, was on the scene in South Park, having rushed there after hearing from Demonte’s mother.

“All the smoke. I mean, it was —” he paused during the WSOC interview before continuing. “I couldn’t watch. Couldn’t watch.”

‘Just wanted to be with his children’

Grier, Sherrill’s aunt, alluded on the GoFundMe page she set up to tragedy having stricken the family before. “His Kids are Now left without a Mother or a Father!” she wrote. In one of the comments on the Live video Sherrill posted to his Facebook page during the fire last Thursday, a woman made a similar reference: “My prayers go out to the children who lost their father yesterday and they just lost their mother last year,” she wrote.

“My heart goes out to the grandmother.”

Said that grandmother, Onita Sherrill, in the interview with WSOC: “I’m still in shock. You know, really numb about the whole situation.” She called her son “a loving father, caring person,” who “just wanted to be with his children and his family.”

This story was originally published May 23, 2023 at 4:15 PM with the headline "Family grieves father of four who died in South Park fire after pleading for help on Facebook."