Friends mourn Bridgeport's 17th homicide victim of 2012

Bridgeport police are investigating a shooting that left one dead early Saturday morning. Police state someone reported a man laying in the middle of the street on Calhoun Place near the entrance to Kolbe Cathedral High School. less Bridgeport police are investigating a shooting that left one dead early Saturday morning. Police state someone reported a man laying in the middle of the street on Calhoun Place near the entrance to Kolbe ... more Photo: Steve Krauchick Photo: Steve Krauchick Image 1 of / 11 Caption Close Friends mourn Bridgeport's 17th homicide victim of 2012 1 / 11 Back to Gallery

BRIDGEPORT -- Kenny Powell was always Keisha Powell to his neighbors -- kind, stylish and thoroughly charming.

Powell worked as a prostitute. He was tall and lithe, with a waist so small that he fit into a size 0. And wherever he went, including for his profession, he wore women's clothes.

Neighbors in the the Hollow section of Bridgeport were aware that Washington Avenue to Pequonnock and Vine streets and Calhoun Place, a rectangle that includes Kolbe Cathedral High School, was Powell's streetwalking turf.

While the Bridgeport Police Department has yet to release the name of the Park City's 17th homicide victim of 2012, who died in a hail of bullets at about 1 a.m. Saturday, friends and neighbors say Powell's brother informed them that Kenny "Keisha" Powell, 42, was shot to death a few feet from the entrance to Kolbe Cathedral High School, an area Bridgeport police concede is rife with prostitution and drug activity from cars at night.

"Keisha was very out there. Everyone knew she was a prostitute. She didn't keep no secrets about who she was," Shamika Cancel said, her eyes pooling with tears. "She'd say hi to everyone. The first time I met her was on this porch," Cancel said, gesturing toward her deceased neighbor's front door. "She was sitting over here, with her legs crossed, and she says, `Hi, honey, do you live here? I'm moving in.' And I liked her the moment I met her. She was real sweet."

Friends had to think hard to recall Powell's given name was Kenny. They knew him as Keisha. They said Keisha had an artistic nature and a natural eye for designing a room that made neighbors think a professional interior designer had decorated it. Each room had a theme. The living room had brown and white walls and a brown leather couch. In another room the opposing walls were painted black and white and there was a large rectangular fish tank in the middle with goldfish.

Powell liked to have company for dinner. But cooking, neighbors said, was not Powell's forte. He liked to serve White Castle hamburgers.

"She liked fine things," Cancel said. "She considered those sliders the best thing around. I don't know where she got them from because there aren't any White Castles around here." It wouldn't surprise Cancel if Powell trekked all the way to the Bronx for the sliders.

The last time Cancel saw Powell was close to midnight. He was wearing a long, straight-haired brunette wig, a blue T-shirt, stylish capri pants that showed off his slim figure, and low-top sneakers.

"Personally, I think, whoever did this to Keisha thought he was a woman," Cancel said, "and only realized after the fact that he was a man." That's the theory among Powell's neighbors.

Monica Torres, another neighbor of Powell's, recalls she saw Powell hours before the shooting as both crossed paths on the sidewalk.

"She never hassled anybody," Torres said. "She was a generous lady who'd give you whatever she had, whatever you needed if you needed something."

In a statement about the slaying, Bridgeport Police state that a citizen reported seeing a man laying in the middle of the street near the entrance to Kolbe Cathedral High School. When officers arrived, the man was already dead, having sustained several gunshot wounds. Area residents who heard the gunfire told the Connecticut Post that they estimate that at least half a dozen shots were fired. Others claim they slept through the shooting, and suggested their air conditioners may have drowned out the sound.

"There are no police foot patrols in this neighborhood," said John Walsh, a longtime resident. "It's a high crime area where there is known prostitution and drug dealing taking place. The police know all this. People call and report what's going on and by the time the cops get here, whatever's happening is all over."

"A shooting like this in front of a school, a Catholic high school, is a problem," Walsh said. "What we really need is a police presence walking the beat, not just cops driving around in their patrol cars."

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