This Kansas City man had a dream. But his plan of barbering were cut short by a bullet
Eighteen days into the new year, DeAndre Davis submitted an application to the Missouri State Board of Cosmetology and Barber Examiners.
It had been about six years since he finished serving time for a first-degree robbery and armed criminal action conviction.
“I was young and dumb and because of my actions I served 10 years,” he wrote. “I’m at a time in my life where I’m way past my criminal thinking and I want to start my career and give back to my community by becoming a respectful barber.”
In February, Davis started classes at Old Town Barber College in Kansas City, quickly excelling into advanced techniques, his instructors said.
Two months into proving himself a promising student “at the crossroads of change,” they said, Davis was killed. The 46th person slain in Kansas City this year.
.jpeg "image00_fitted (2).jpeg")
He was shot on the eve of Easter, found wounded in a home in the 4300 block of Hardesty Avenue, police said at the time. Davis died at the hospital the next morning.
A spokesperson with the Kansas City Police Department said there were no updates in Davis’ case.
“Everybody has their own story, and the DeAndre had his,” said Wayne Major, campus director and co-owner of Old Town Barber College. “He understood what his past was, and he didn’t want that anymore. He had a real clear and vivid vision on where he wanted to go.”
Major said what stood out about DeAndre, who had just completed his clinical training and had started cutting hair at the school about two weeks before his death, was that he was determined by his past to reach his future.
The school has dedicated an honorary certificate of completion to Davis “in hope that it will serve as a reminder that it’s never too late to change one’s path,” they announced.
It’s a message that Davis was already spreading, his family said.
“You can make mistakes and you can change from that. You can learn from that, you can better your life no matter what anybody tells you,” his sister Amber Davis, 28, recalls her brother saying.
Davis was goofy and loving, the eldest of six, his family said.
He dreamed of opening his own barber shop and of naming it after his late mother, Crystal, the woman who raised them on her own.
He loved to cook for his family, and figured he might be able to make a family business of it too one day. A restaurant to pass down to his children, who are now 2, 17 and 17. A way to afford that big house he always dreamed of, that could fit his children and siblings, nieces and nephews under the same roof, so they could always be together.
And he would do this all in Kansas City, of course. The city that put him through hell, then raised him up. The city he was proud of.
“Kansas City taught him a lot, and he went through a lot in Kansas City, so he just wanted to give back and have a place in Kansas City where he’s known in a positive way,” his sister, Britney Taylor, 32, said.
He wasn’t ashamed of his past, and he wasn’t ashamed to tell people the mistakes he made, Taylor said. Then he’d tell them where he was going.
Britney Taylor said it took her brother years to start overcoming the challenges that came after prison.
“It’s not an easy process to get yourself out of being a felon and try to make anything positive out of it because you always have that on your back,” she said.
But eventually he found a new path and made his family proud.
He inspired other family and friends to pursue barbering too. He was particularly focused on uplifting the younger generations, family said. He wanted to let them know that they had opportunities ahead of them. That they could dream big. Have something to look forward to.
AJ Jones, 14, Davis’ nephew, said his uncle inspired him to do better in life, to stay smart, to do well in school.
“He inspired us just to be ourselves, don’t let anybody change us,” Jones said.
He pulled a red shirt with his uncle’s face on it over his polo.
“Stop killing,” the teen said. “Just stop killing. There’s no reason to kill. We’re all the same people.”
This story was originally published April 26, 2022 at 1:43 PM.
