Mitchell Phillips, 52, a male Black/African American barbershop owner, was shot and killed on September 9, 2025, in Chicago’s East Chatham neighborhood. He had spent years cutting hair in the community before opening his own shop earlier that year, in February. On that Tuesday afternoon, he was inside his business near 79th and Drexel when the attack unfolded, a place where family said the door stayed locked and opened only for clients.
Loved ones described him as a father and grandfather who gave free haircuts to children and poured himself into the neighborhood he served.
According to police accounts reported that week, the shooting happened around 3:41 p.m. in the 800 block of East 79th Street. Mitchell Phillips, 52, was struck three times, taken in critical condition to the University of Chicago Medical Center, and later pronounced dead. The storefront was shuttered after the killing, candles and flowers gathering outside in tribute to the man many considered a fixture on the block.
Family members said the violence began as an attempted robbery that turned deadly; they described blood on the floor and overturned chairs, insisting he “put up a fight.” A witness inside the shop, relatives told reporters, indicated two men were behind the shooting. Police did not confirm those specific details but said detectives were investigating. As of those reports in mid-September 2025, no one had been taken into custody.
In the days that followed, the community mourned while authorities sought leads. Public records and memorial listings marked the date and city of the killing, even as the case remained open. The portrait that emerges of Mitchell Phillips, 52, is of a South Side businessman who built a haven with his clippers and chair, only to have his life cut short inside the shop he dreamed into being.
