Arlington triple homicide victim was ‘community servant,’ looked for ways to give, mom says
One of the three victims killed in an Arlington shooting last month was a “community servant” who loved his family, helped others whenever he could and enjoyed making barbecue any chance he had, his mother told the Star-Telegram.
Shannen Oshay Jones, 29, had gotten his license to cut hair two months before police say Larry Reed, also 29, shot and killed him and two others in an apartment in Arlington, his mother Paula Johnson said. He was planning on proposing to the mother of his two children and starting his own business.
Shannen Jones was Paula Johnson’s youngest son. He had two children, a 5-year-old son and a 2-month-old daughter, who Johnson said were his whole life.
“He was happy when his son was born, but when his daughter was born that was his world,” Johnson said.
Jones started cutting hair when he was 10 years old, Johnson said. She found him in a closet cutting the hair on some of her dolls and yelled at him that he had better never do that again. But it didn’t stop him, she said.
Instead, cutting hair quickly became a passion for Jones. He made a tradition of going to apartment complexes each year around the time school would start and giving free haircuts to the boys living there and would frequently give free haircuts to children with single parents.
“He was just a giver,” Johnson said.
Her son could also be counted on at family game nights to make everybody laugh and ensure that get-togethers were fun for everybody who showed up. He would barbecue all the time, sometimes for game nights, usually on holidays or for family gatherings and “sometimes just because it was a Tuesday,” Johnson said.
Growing up, Jones was a vibrant and social child, but he was also a “hip kid,” his mother said. He would be by her side all the time and that love for spending time with his mother was still there as he became an adult.
Jones went to his mother in August and told her he was going to start building a steady life.
“I said, ‘OK, just as long as you’re ready,’ ” Johnson told the Star-Telegram. ‘Usually at that age they don’t usually be mature and really ready for the settle down. It takes them a little while, usually.”
She was extremely proud of him for making that decision.
His experiences going to homes and apartments to give out haircuts led Jones to decide he would get his license and start a mobile barber business, something he would use to make money and provide for his own family after he proposed to his girlfriend.
While Jones’ death has affected his mother, she said his children and siblings are taking it much harder. Each day is a new struggle for all of them. She said she’s coping and doing whatever she can manage to help his children and siblings process the loss.