Pastor on homeless man murdered: ‘He had a leadership role’

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The homeless community in Wilmington is mourning the loss of a friend, a leader, and someone they all knew very well.

Those who knew Steve Barton say he had a pretty big impact on his community. That community is now grieving after Barton was found dead in an alley last week.

“Steve was a man with a huge heart and an even bigger smile,” Jason Mitchell said.

Vigilant Hope Pastor Jason Mitchell said Steve Barton had a way of making anyone he met smile.

“He had a way of making people feel really good about the moment they were in no matter what that was,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell met Barton six years ago when he started working with Wilmington’s homeless community as an urban missionary.

“He was one of the first people I got to really ever develop a relationship with,” Mitchell said.

A relationship that is now just a memory after a city worker found Barton’s body in an alley on Hooper Street Thursday morning.

911 Dispatcher: “Are you right by the patient now?
911 Caller: “Yeah. He ain’t no patient. He ain’t breathing or nothing. He dead.”

“The streets called me really quickly and let me know that he had been shot and killed. I hung up the phone and processed really hard.”

Mitchell said he lost more than just a friend, but someone close to his family.

“Both my daughters were close with him, my wife,” Mitchell said. “You know out here things can get hairy sometimes, but he was like a protector. He actually pulled my wife aside one time and stood in front of her like a guardian.”

Mitchell said Barton was even more than that.

“He was almost like, he had a leadership role in the homeless community,” Mitchell said. “People looked to him, because he had been in it for quite a while unfortunately.”

That is why Mitchell said the whole community came together for him one last time.

“There were probably 120 people in attendance from DAs in our court, to lawyers and pastors from different parts, different churches, it was amazing to see the turn out,” Mitchell said.

They were all there to honor Barton’s huge heart and remember his even bigger smile.

Wilmington Police charged Jaquan Orlando Copeland, 25, and Eric Nathan Partin, 26, each with first-degree murder for Barton’s death.