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GREENSBORO — Friends say 21-year-old Rance “LJ” Slaughter would give a little smile and say, 'I’m blessed,” anytime someone asked how he was doing.

He had a 1-year-old son. He had a loving girlfriend. He was going to school and working hard on the football field in hopes of playing at Wake Forest.

“He was a gentleman at heart and wanted the best for everyone,” said Janae Parsons, a friend of Slaughter’s. “No matter what the situation, he would find a positive.”

Slaughter’s life was cut short Thursday night when he was fatally shot outside his north Greensboro apartment.

Police were called to Northwinds Apartments at 8:45 p.m. Thursday about a disturbance. While on the way, they learned shots had been fired in the area. Officers found Slaughter, who was shot once, outside the breezeway of Building J at the complex at 1373 Lees Chapel Road.

Another man, Michael Anthony Mays, 24, of 4010 Pepperbush Drive in Greensboro, suffered a cut on his thumb and was treated at the hospital and released.

Police have not determined a motive for the shooting and declined to say whether they had recovered a murder weapon.

Police arrested two people in connection with another incident that may have led to the shooting, police Capt. Janice Rogers said.

Mays and Dominick Devon Williams, 23, of 120 Olde Salem Drive in Jamestown, were each charged Friday with first-degree burglary and simple assault in a break-in at another unit in Building J.

Mays also was charged with assault on a government official or employee. According to arrest reports, Mays threw blood into an officer’s face.

“He assaulted one of the guys in an apartment over there prior to the shooting,” Rogers said. “Then when the officers pulled up, they had to sort of fight him to get him down.”

Mays was booked into the Guilford County jail in Greensboro on Friday under a $20,000 secured bond. Williams is being held under a $15,000 bond.

Slaughter might have been involved with the two men, Rogers said. She said the case was essentially a matter of investigators putting the pieces together to determine the sequence of events that led up to the shooting.

“We are going to sit down and talk about it,” Rogers said Friday. “What we saw ... what we discovered as evidence and then we can go over and talk to the district attorney (about possible charges).”

Police are continuing to talk to residents who might have been outside when the shooting happened. Rogers said, to detectives’ knowledge, there were no eyewitnesses.

According to friends and family, Slaughter had lived at Northwinds for less than a year while he attended classes at GTCC.

He previously attended N.C. Central, where he studied criminal justice. He was a 2007 graduate of North Davidson High School, where he played wide receiver on the football team and ran track.

“He was a fine, loving and outgoing person,” said Shanel Parsons, his girlfriend for more than a year. “He liked jewelry, shopping, laughing and he loved his car, a Jeep Cherokee.”

Another friend, Amanda Williams, said Slaughter always had a smile on his face and a joke to share.

“He loved going to church and would talk to anybody and read scriptures,” Williams said. “He was a sweetheart and never bothered anybody. He knew how to connect to people.”

Slaughter loved football and was training to make Wake Forest’s roster, Williams said.

“I used to pick on him because I told him he was too little to play football,” Williams joked. “He would say, 'It’s not about the size, it’s about how hard you hit.’”

Police ask that anyone with information about Slaughter’s death call Crime Stoppers at 373-1000. Callers remain anonymous.

Staff Writer Dioni L. Wise contributed to this report.

Contact Ryan Seals at 373-7077 or ryan.seals@news-record.com