'He Was A Father Figure' | Community Mourns Loss Of Shelton Stanley, Dunbar Assistant Principal Found Shot To Death Inside Pikesville Home
PIKESVILLE, Md. (WJZ) -- Members of the community are mourning the loss of Shelton Stanley, a Baltimore City high school assistant principal, who police say was found shot and killed in his Pikesville home over the weekend.
Officers found Stanley, 36, dead inside his home in the 4800 block of Hawksbury Road on Sunday evening after family members called for a welfare check.
Stanley's body had traumatic injuries, police said. An autopsy conducted on Monday ruled his death a homicide due to multiple gunshot wounds.
As a ninth-grader at Knowledge and Success Academy, Katzmin Carter took a math class with Stanley, but said he was more than just an educator.
"He was a father figure to a lot of kids who didn't have a father, who didn't have that kind of guidance in their life," Carter said.
Students tell WJZ Stanley was killed just hours before his 37th birthday.
"Yesterday would've been the day we would've been calling him, screaming happy birthday to him and trying to see what he wanted to do," Carter said. "So for us to lose him the day before his birthday was the biggest heartbreak for us."
Lamont Echols worked with Stanley for four years at Dunbar Middle. Echols said the shooting is hard to comprehend.
"Professional, warm, friendly, always," Echols said. "Not a mean bone in his body."
Friends and students said, while Stanley may be gone, his memory lives on.
"We become his walking legacy," Echols said. "Take everything he taught you, personify it on and share it. That will be the way we keep him alive."
"Mr. Stanley will always live through his students, his family, his church," Carter said. "Through everybody he touched and knew him."
Most recently, Stanley was an assistant principal at Dunbar High School in east Baltimore.
A candlelight vigil is scheduled on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. in front of Friendship Academy of Science and Tech.