(San Francisco Chronicle)OAKLAND -- Paris Powell made it his life's mission to feed and clothe the homeless and to help domestic violence victims on the rougher streets of Oakland. Now, after a gunman ended his life in front of his family, his pregnant widow wonders how she can move forward without her best friend.
Lalita Powell, 35, spoke at times forcefully and through tears Thursday as she recalled the shooting in East Oakland that killed her 29-year-old husband of two years and left her with a bullet lodged in her left shoulder. His stepdaughters, Shayla, 3, and Cristina, 7, and now his unborn child are fatherless, and Lalita Powell doesn't know why.
"My husband has no enemies, no criminal past, no drug involvement, no gang activity, nothing," she said. "I don't know if it was random, I don't know if that's the new way they jump people into gangs or something. It's not right. It's not fair. It doesn't seem real."
Just another night
All four family members were in their Ford Aerostar van early Wednesday, making their nightly rounds delivering hot dinners to the homeless as part of their nonprofit organization, the Rise Above Foundation.
They had visited several regulars on 62nd and 54th avenues and International Boulevard and decided to check on their friend William Holloway, 61, on 47th Avenue at about 12:30 a.m. Holloway, who used to be homeless, had gotten a job there as a security guard.
Paris Powell, proud of a new fish batter he had just created, gave Holloway a dinner of fried fish, chips and a drink. Holloway thanked the man he knew only as "Brother John."
That's when someone in a van pulled alongside the Powells' Aerostar. The sliding door opened and, without a word, a man fired four shots.
Shayla and Cristina screamed, and Lalita Powell began praying, "Oh my God, help us." She never got a good look at the shooter.
She whispered to her husband, "Are you OK?" He was still breathing, but didn't respond. She figured he "wasn't saying anything because he was trying to model what we should do."
Horrifying sight
The gunman left, and the family's van started moving. She thought her husband was taking them to safety, but when the Aerostar collided with a parked tractor-trailer rig, she saw he was covered in blood.
Police and paramedics came, and only then did Lalita Powell feel a "stinging-burn sensation" in her left shoulder and realize that she had been shot. It wasn't until hours later that she realized Shayla had been hit by a bullet that went straight through her left arm and past her ear, singeing off a patch of her hair.
Paris Powell was removed from life support Wednesday night. No arrest has been made.
On Thursday, Shayla, her arm bandaged just like her mother's, played happily with her sister. "She really doesn't fully understand as far as what happened," said Paris Powell's cousin Don Hamilton, 30. "She's very strong. The only thing she cares about is getting back to playing, and that says a lot right there."
No explanation
Like Lalita Powell, Hamilton has no explanation for what happened.
If his cousin "saw a bum walking up the street right now," Hamilton said, "he would just feed him and make sure they had a meal and just try to take care of him. His last act was taking care of other people, putting other people before himself."
The Powells arranged toy and blanket drives on top of creating menu plans for those on the street.
"We never fed slop," Lalita Powell said. "We always felt like just because they're homeless doesn't mean they have to eat any old thing. They're just like anyone else in society, so whatever we ate, they ate, and they ate good."
Her husband had been looking forward to having their first child together, she said. "He was just hopeful that he finally was going to have his own image, be able to cherish his own self, basically," she said. "He wanted to instill the good values and virtues that his grandmother taught and his mother."
She wants him remembered as a "pioneer in the community and a humanitarian. He's a sweet man, a very peaceful man."
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