Isaiah Jeremiah Shackleford was a drummer all his life.

When his mother was pregnant with him, she sat right in front of the drums at church. Maybe there was something about the vibrations that resonated with his soul. His parents gifted him a drum set for Christmas just before his first birthday. As a kid, he would tap-tap-tap to lull himself to sleep.

Shackleford is now in his eternal rest. The 22-year-old, who infused kindness and care in everything he did, was shot on Nov. 7 while driving on Maryland Route 295 as he returned to his Annapolis home after a DoorDash shift in Baltimore. He died the next day.

Police are still investigating the shooting and searching for suspects. His family is urging anyone who was driving around 8:30 a.m. southbound on the highway near the Annapolis Road exit to call authorities with any information that might aid the investigation, even if it seems small, such as the color of a car driving a little too fast that morning.

Shackleford was born on Feb. 2, 2002, to Jeannette and Terry Shackleford. He was the last of eight children, a baby brother to Tekeyla, Hope, Terry Jr., Sampson, Faith, Charity and Patience. And he definitely lived up to the younger sibling stereotype. Charity Shackleford called him “my baby.”

“Everybody just loved Isaiah,” Hope Shackleford said. “He was love and light — literally, love and light, as cliché as that is. He really was just a sweet, shy 22-year-old navigating his way through life, and he was taken way too soon.”

Isaiah Shackleford was kind and free-spirited, persistent and goofy, with a contagious laugh, family and friends said. Think high-pitched, full-bodied — “It was as if his laugh caught him off guard,” said longtime family friend, Allen Cork, who was like another older brother to Shackleford. To those who knew him best, he was usually “Zay” or “Zaybo.”

As the family’s youngest boy grew, he and Cork bonded over their shared love of the drums, and Cork took him under his wing. “Everybody looked out for Zaybo,” he said.

Together, Cork and Shackleford took long walks together and talked about life. Cork tried to be a good influence on him, suggesting self-improvement books and offering an outlet for Shackleford to express his feelings as a young man.

They also often went to the gym together and attended high school sports games — track, football, basketball.

Shackleford was “his own kind of quirky kid,” Cork said. For one, he regularly watched the news, just because he wanted to know what was going on in the world. He loved listening to Paramore and visiting museums with friends.

Cork and Shackleford regularly watched sports or movies together, and Shackleford was a big fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The two would often order in wings — boneless for Shackleford — or pizza. Shackleford was a thin man, but he could eat, Cork said. He was notorious for ordering $24 burritos, stuffed with toppings, from Chipotle.

Shackleford wasn’t exactly sure what he wanted to do in life, but he knew he wanted to experience everything it had to offer. He was interested in visiting the Pacific Northwest and wanted to explore the outdoors. For most of his life, he’d been pretty reserved, but he craved a significant other with whom he could connect deeply, Cork said.

Shackleford also talked about going to trade school and studying heating, ventilation and air conditioning, Cork said.

“I think he would have been extremely happy there,” Cork said. “I think he would have reached his potential. He would have found himself there, kind of being his own man, and making mistakes and learning.”

Shackleford had a large support system, but he preferred doing things his own way, Charity Shackleford said. He liked accomplishing a task and saying, “I did it,” she said. He’d often seek out advice from Charity and Hope, but in typical younger sibling fashion, he’d ignore it.

“If I could put like a quote with that type of attitude, it was, ‘Let me figure life out on my own,’” Charity Shackleford said. “And that’s exactly what he was doing. He was trying to figure life out on his own.”

Isaiah Shackleford tried to keep busy, and he worked several jobs over the years, including at Target, a University of Maryland medical facility and a friend’s cleaning business, his sister said. Most recently, he worked at Trader Joe’s in Towson, where co-workers have described him on social media as hardworking, helpful and good-natured.

That’s just who he was, family said. Shackleford was especially good with children, always playing with his nieces and nephews and bringing a smile to their faces, his sisters said.

In recent days, Shackleford’s friends reached out to his loved ones to let them know just how good of a friend he was — never judgmental, always reliable, silly and serious. A few years back, one of Shackleford’s old classmates posted on social media that he felt alone and abandoned by others, Cork recalled.

Shackleford immediately reached out to him.

“Isaiah had a really big heart, and he cared, and he was willing to do the thing no one would do,” Cork said.

Correction: This story has been updated to correct the roadway where Isaiah Shackleford was shot.

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