Aurora – With the curve of a razor, Thomas Powell put his distinct touch on the hair he cut. He touched people’s heads and hearts, he made them look good and, more important, he came into their lives through a barber’s chair and made them smile.
More than 300 people who knew the 32-year-old barber and father gathered Wednesday night in the east Aurora shopping center where Powell was gunned down last weekend to show their love for him.
“He was always the ear and the shoulder when you needed one,” longtime friend Mindi Clayton said. “Bottom line: He was a good man.”
Powell, who operated a barbershop near East Iliff Avenue and South Buckley Road, was shot and killed Saturday night in the parking lot of Phat Mart in the 1100 block of Sable Boulevard.
Powell stumbled into the nearby Country Buffet restaurant with a gunshot wound in his chest as several diners rushed to provide aid.
Family and friends have wondered why he was shot. Powell wasn’t in a gang and had no quarrels with anyone, they said.
Police have not identified any suspects or motives for the killing, although some suspect Powell might have fallen victim to random gang violence.
“I’m not going to be able to sleep until I know why,” said his brother, Keith Powell, who urged anyone with information about the shooting to come forward.
People from all walks of life came to honor Powell. Some in the crowd included gang members, but out of respect everyone came together to remember the man.
“He just touched so many lives and did a lot of it by just meeting people who sat in his barber’s chair,” said longtime friend Melvin Philio, standing among mourners. “A great man died here.”
The evening’s candlelight vigil was organized by Powell’s family and community leaders who led a campaign to begin this summer to protest gang violence, labeling the effort the “Summer of Peace.”
The campaign has been fruitless, some critics say, and several gang-related homicides have happened this summer.
The parents of 17-year-old Marcus Mason, who was gunned down last month while walking with his girlfriend in Park Hill because he may have been wearing the wrong color in a gang territory, attended the vigil to show their support for Powell. Police have not identified any suspects in Mason’s slaying.
“It just seems like good people aren’t safe anymore, either,” Mason’s father, Carlos Mason, said. “My son wasn’t in a gang, Mr. Powell wasn’t in a gang. They were good people. Something has to change. This violence is insane, and it has to stop.”
Terrance Roberts, one of the organizers of the Summer of Peace, spoke to the crowd about recognizing each other and respecting each other.
“We pushed the Summer of Peace, and a lot of people were saying it wasn’t working,” said Roberts, executive director of The Prodigal Son Initiative Inc. “But it was an informational campaign, and seeing all the people who showed up here tonight, it’s working.
“People are coming out and showing that people want a change.”
Staff writer Manny Gonzales can be reached at 303-954-1537 or mgonzales@denverpost.com.
