Marcus Cason was a man who knew almost everyone in his North Memphis community, and it seemed like everyone knew and loved him. A 48-year-old husband, father, and respected barber, Marcus was a fixture in his neighborhood. He and his wife, Brandy, were high school sweethearts who built a life together from the time they were teenagers. They married after their son, Gabral, was born, and their daughter, Kennedy, followed two years later. While Brandy pursued a teaching degree, Marcus went to barber school. He started his career at a local salon, eventually buying it from his mentor and renaming it Amanda’s Beauty and Barber Salon, in honor of his grandmother. His talent was renowned, attracting a diverse clientele that ranged from neighborhood friends to professional basketball players like Chris Paul, Tyson Chandler, and Rudy Gay. He even cut Kobe Bryant's hair.
His wife remembered him as a man who loved everyone, from "the richest to the poorest."
On the evening of Wednesday, August 25, 2021, Marcus made a decision that tragically cost him his life. It was a Wednesday, a day he almost always spent at Bible study at New Bellevue Baptist Church, where his cousin was a pastor and he sometimes played the drums for the choir. But on this night, he skipped the service. A neighbor was so surprised they noted seeing him make a U-turn at the church and drive away. Between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m., he spoke with Brandy on the phone. Just thirty minutes later, his family’s world shattered. Marcus had gone to visit an acquaintance at a home on the 800 block of Meagher Street. As the homeowner opened the front door, a vehicle drove by and its occupants opened fire. Marcus was struck by the gunfire and died at the scene.
Brandy Cason was on the phone with a friend when calls from her frantic children began flooding her phone. When she finally answered, her daughter was screaming that her father was dead. Brandy rushed toward the scene, stopping first at their church, which was only a few blocks from where the shooting occurred. She ran inside, and fellow church members immediately left to join her. When she arrived, the street was blocked off with crime scene tape. Police wouldn't let her near her husband’s body. Because Marcus often forgot to carry identification, there was a delay in formally identifying him. Brandy waited for hours, not wanting to leave him alone.
Investigators from the Memphis Police Department later came to the Cason home to have Brandy identify her husband from a photograph. They also delivered the painful news that Marcus was not the intended target of the drive-by shooting. For his grieving family, this confirmation only deepened the senselessness of the tragedy. "My children lost their father for somebody else’s mess," Brandy said. The loss of a man so universally admired and with no known enemies left the community in shock.
The funeral for Marcus Cason was initially planned as a small affair at New Bellevue, but it quickly grew into a large celebration of his life. To honor his memory, the children's and adult choirs he had been a part of joined together to sing. The finality of his death was a crushing blow for his wife. "He was my everything," Brandy recalled of the moment his casket was lowered into the ground. In his honor, she renamed the shop Cason’s Beauty and Barber Salon.
For a time, Brandy tried to keep their legacy alive, but the weight of the loss was too heavy. Marcus had been known for keeping his prices low for the community, often paying the salon's rent out of his own pocket. Without him, and with some customers too grief-stricken to return to the place that so strongly reminded them of their friend, Brandy had to close the salon in January 2024. As of September 2025, the murder of Marcus Cason remains unsolved, and no arrests have been made. His family continues to wait for justice, holding on to the memory of a beloved husband and father who was taken by someone else's conflict.
