Local News

‘He loved everybody’: 43-year-old killed inside barber shop remembered for his community impact

Herman Maxwell Hylton, a Roxbury resident, was shot and killed Wednesday night in Dorchester.

October 28, 2022

2 minutes to read

Friends and customers are remembering the 43-year-old Roxbury man who was shot and killed Wednesday night inside a Dorchester barber shop for the impact he had in the community.

Boston activists say enough is enough on gun violence. What can be done?

Boston police responded to Celebrity Cuts Barber Shop at 145 Washington St. around 7:17 p.m. on Wednesday. Inside, they found Herman Maxwell Hylton, 43, of Roxbury suffering from a gunshot wound. He died at the scene.

Hylton’s death is the latest in a series of fatal shootings that have rocked Boston in recent weeks, prompting activists to call for action from city leaders.

Shawn Harris, a friend of Hylton’s, told WCVB that his friend is going to be “dearly missed.”

“I don’t know what’s going on,” he said. “It’s just, we’re losing a lot of good people — you know what I’m saying — who are not really in the streets and stuff.”

The 43-year-old gave out free haircuts to kids at the beginning of the school year, Harris told the station.

“He loved everybody,” Leilah Rose, who brought her children to Hylton for haircuts, told WCVB. “He didn’t discriminate. Big, fat, poor, he loved everybody and he loved kids, everybody’s kids.”

Friends identify barbershop murder victim as the fun loving Max, who did free back to school cuts in #Dorchester. Hear from a heartbroken mom who says he helped her family so much #wcvb pic.twitter.com/kdB3Z1zlNb
— Rhondella Richardson (@wcvbrhondella) October 27, 2022

According to The Boston Globe, Hylton leaves behind a one-month-old baby.

The brother of the child’s mother, Marcus Garvey, told the newspaper that his sister and Hylton had been together for five years and planned to get married.

“It kills me, man,” he told the Globe. “I still don’t even get it yet, because he doesn’t trouble people.”

No arrests have been made in Hylton’s killing, but officials have said his murder is not believed to be a random act of violence.

“We need the public’s help with this,” Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox said earlier this week. “This stuff needs to stop, and we are going to make sure we are focusing in all the places we need to be to make sure we curtail some of this stuff that is going on out here.”

Police are asking anyone with information to contact homicide detectives at 617-343-4470 or submit tips anonymously at 1-800-494-TIPS or by texting the word “TIP” to CRIME (27463).