Brandy Cason always knew where her husband was on Wednesday nights: Bible study at New Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, with his cousin who was a pastor there. On Wednesday, August 25, 2021, Marcus Cason skipped that evening’s session. According to Brandy, a neighbor — surprised — even saw Marcus pull a U-turn at the church and drive in a different direction.
Brandy remembers speaking on the phone with Marcus between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. Just 30 minutes later, she got a phone call — one that would change her life forever.
She remembers being on the phone with a friend when other calls started popping up — first from her daughter, Kennedy, and then from her son, Gabral. She ignored them at first, but they kept coming. “I answered the phone, and my daughter was just screaming,” Brandy said. “My son was on the phone and they said that ‘Daddy is dead.’”
Brandy told Dateline Marcus wasn’t just her husband, he was her best friend. They met when they were teenagers. She grew up in Chicago before her family moved to South Memphis. Marcus lived on the northern side. “He was just a North Memphis guy. He knows everyone in the community,” Brandy said.
At 18, Brandy got pregnant with their son. She and Marcus got married. Brandy got her teaching degree, and Marcus went to barber school to get his license. Two years later, at age 20, Brandy gave birth to their daughter. “I left my parents’ house and was with him. I knew no one else. In your twenties, you’re living on your own,” she said. “I was a parent, a mother, going to school, and married. I was doing all these things at once. When young people are trying to figure their stuff out — no, that wasn’t me. I had a man who took care of his children. I can count on one hand how many days of work he missed in all of his years.”
Marcus began his career at the salon where he earned his license. He later bought the salon from his mentor and renamed it Amanda’s Beauty and Barber Salon after his grandmother.
Brandy says Marcus was well known in the community for his hair-cutting skills. His clients ranged from friends and family to professional athletes like basketball players Tyson Chandler, Rudy Gay, and Chris Paul. He once even cut Kobe Bryant’s hair when he was in town. “He was loved. My husband loved everyone,” Brandy said. “It could be from the richest to the poorest, he knew ‘em all — and it was almost to a fault.”
The fact that Marcus was so universally admired is what made the news that he’d been shot came as such a shock.
After getting the call, Brandy remembers rushing out of the house in a panic. “I’m speeding on the expressway and something just told me to stop at the church before I even went to the scene,” she said. The church, their barber shop, and the street where Marcus was shot are very close together, in a two or three-block radius.
Brandy says she ran inside the church full of familiar faces, screamed out what had happened, and the members dropped everything to join her at the scene. Crime scene tape was everywhere.
Brandy says she tried to get to her husband, but police wouldn’t let her beyond the crime scene tape. She says Marcus had a bad habit of forgetting to carry any ID, and police still needed to verify his identification. “‘My husband is in there. Our car is in the driveway. I need to see him,’” Brandi remembers yelling.
The shooting happened on the 800 block of Meagher Street, according to NBC affiliate Action News 5. They reported that a man was pronounced dead at the scene, and no suspect information was available at the time.
Brandy says she learned from her son that Marcus had gone over to the home of an acquaintance in the neighborhood that night. As the homeowner opened the door, a vehicle pulled up and shot at the door. Marcus was hit.
Marcus had already passed away when Brandy arrived on the scene. She says she stayed there until around midnight when they brought out his body. “I didn’t want to leave him. I wanted him to know that we were there. I didn’t want him to have to come out to no one being outside,” Brandy said.
Because Marcus had no prior arrests, his fingerprints were not in the system when police attempted to run them and ID him. The next day, when the police came to their home, Brandy was asked to identify her husband from a photo they’d brought. She couldn’t bear to see an image of Marcus dead, but was told she had to be the one to do it. “His life should never have been diminished to a dead photo,” Brandy said. “His life was worth so much more than a damn photo.”
Brandy says police told her that her husband was not the target of the attack, but she already knew that. “You didn’t even have to tell me he wasn’t the target. We knew that,” she said. “My children lost their father for somebody else’s mess.”
After Marcus was murdered, Brandy wanted to have a small funeral at New Bellevue, but it quickly grew into a bigger celebration of his life. Marcus used to play the drums for the church choir, and to honor him, both the children’s and adult choirs joined together to sing.
At the burial, as her husband’s body was being laid to rest, Brandy had a sudden rushing feeling as the casket was being lowered in the ground. “He was my everything. I heard that noise, and it was just giving off the finality of it all,” she said.
Brandy renamed the barber shop Cason’s Beauty and Barber Salon in honor of her husband. In January of last year, however, she had to close it down. Marcus had been known for keeping prices low, and sometimes, to make up for that, he would pay the rent with his own money. She also remembers that after Marcus’s death, some customers were so sad they couldn’t even bear to come into the shop. “That was our legacy,” Brandy said. “That was something we had worked to do. I had to let it go.”
Brandy still lives in Memphis, where she teaches special education. Her children still live in Memphis as well. “We now have a granddaughter,” she said. “My grandbaby is one and a half and he didn’t get a chance to meet her.”
It has been four years since Marcus was shot and killed.
His family still has no information as to who did it and why. Dateline reached out to the Memphis Police Department to discuss the case and was referred to the department’s attorney, who has not responded.
If you have any information about Marcus’s homicide, please contact the Memphis Police Department at 901-636-3300. You can also contact Crime Stoppers with information at 901-528-2274.
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