London Powers, 21, a woman and a North Carolina Central University junior, was killed on August 11, 2025, in Durham, North Carolina. Black / African American. That Monday afternoon, police were called to the Camden Pointe Apartments on East Knox Street, where officers found 23-year-old Damien Tinsley dead at the scene and London Powers critically wounded; she was rushed to Duke University Hospital, where she died the following morning.
Investigators identified Tinsley as the suspect in the shooting, which unfolded around 3 p.m., and later described by those close to her as a domestic-violence murder-suicide.
London Powers, 21, a woman and an honors student studying social work at North Carolina Central University, had been preparing to begin an internship with the Durham Center for Senior Life and had recently been elected an officer in the Social Work Society for the 2025–26 academic year. University leaders remembered her as vibrant and service-driven, with plans to pursue a Master of Social Work focused on adolescent and mental health. Friends and coworkers gathered in the days after her death to mourn a classmate they described as empathetic and “the light in every room.”
London Powers, 21, a woman and a beloved daughter, had, according to her family and friends, been trying to leave a relationship with Tinsley and move into a new place when he confronted her at the apartment. A friend who witnessed the attack told reporters she called 911 as the argument turned violent and said Tinsley shot Powers before turning the gun on himself. Family members have since framed the killing as the culmination of ongoing abuse and called for stronger responses to earlier police calls, underscoring the domestic-violence context of the crime.
There have been no arrests in the case. Police publicly identified Tinsley as the suspect and he died at the scene, leaving investigators to close the case without charges while the community and campus honored London Powers, 21, a woman who had only just begun the work she hoped would help others. Memorials and obituaries marked the date—August 11, 2025—and the place—Durham, North Carolina—placing her name among those lost to gun violence.
