In the early morning hours of July 6, 2025, a burst of gunfire shattered the peace outside a nightclub in Jackson, Mississippi, leaving two women dead. One of the victims was Racquel Latrice Freeman, a 35-year-old female. She and her companion, 34-year-old Telisa Holder, were leaving the Fox Den nightclub on Wilmington Street when they were fatally shot.
The investigation into the double homicide quickly pointed to 31-year-old Lewis Powell as a person of interest.
For weeks, law enforcement searched for Powell, who had been on the run since the deadly shooting. The pursuit came to an end on Tuesday, July 29, 2025, when the U.S. Marshals Task Force and the Capitol Police located him at a residence on Alta Vista Boulevard in Jackson. As officers prepared to execute a felony arrest warrant, they made a grim discovery inside the home. Powell was found deceased from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The tragic turn of events left the families of both Racquel Freeman and Telisa Holder with a sense of incomplete justice. While they expressed relief that Powell could no longer harm anyone else, there was also anger that he would never face a trial for the killings. According to family members, both Freeman and Holder were mothers, each leaving behind two children.
In the wake of the violence, friends and community members created a makeshift memorial outside the nightclub to honor the lives of the two women. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is leading the inquiry into Powell's death, which will include determining if the weapon he used to take his own life was the same one used in the murders of Freeman and Holder.
