Shawn Clark should have been the one sitting at the city skatepark last Wednesday, surrounded by two dozen skaters, lobbying for improvements to the ramps, halfpipes and rails.

Clark was always the guy at the front of the stage. His wife, Melissa, jokingly called him the “pied piper’’ because he was such a magnet for children. Neighborhood kids often flocked to Clark’s skateboard shop in Malden, where they hung out and ate pizza while he repaired their boards.

“He just had that magnetic personality that people were drawn to,’’ Melissa Clark said. “He loved an audience. This was kind of the perfect thing for him.’’


On January 29, 2013, two men in hooded sweatshirts walked into Shawn Clark’s store, Patriot Skateboards, and tried to rob him. He fought back and was shot multiple times in front of the store before the men fled, police said. Clark, who was 39 and had two sons, died later that day.

Shawn skating.

The people who killed him still haven’t been found. Last weekend, on what would have been his 42nd birthday, the Middlesex County District Attorney’s office released a short video of the two men, hands in their pockets, walking over a snowy sidewalk into the skate shop. They head behind the counter, and the video stops.

The DA’s office wants anyone with information to call the State Police at (781) 897-6600 or Malden Police at (781) 397-7171. The family is offering a $60,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Shawn’s killers.

Opening a skate shop had been Clark’s dream for years. One day in 2010, after surviving two tours of duty in Iraq, he called up Melissa and said he had good news: he had signed a lease on a storefront.

The place was a hit almost immediately, with teenagers and twenty-somethings arriving in droves.

“We were able to make them feel included and give them something meaningful,’’ Melissa said. “Coming to the shop every day, they thought it was the greatest thing to hang out there. It is its own culture.’’


Now that Shawn is gone, his wife is carrying on his legacy by pursuing projects that he can’t work on anymore. She’s leading a group of skaters and local builders who are working with the city to improve Malden’s skate park, which needs to be updated.

“I had to pick this ball up and see this through,’’ she said. “To get these things started and finished in his memory.’’

That’s the kind of stuff she wants to talk about now: fundraising and construction plans and project lists. Not Shawn’s killers, though she wishes they’d been caught long ago.

Because even if they were brought to justice, her husband would still be gone.