Barber, 71, Shot Down as He Is Leaving Shop : Slaying: Angry friends grieve for man who had been cutting hair in Watts neighborhood since the 1950s. Police believe he was ambushed.

At 71, Charles Mitchell was a cornerstone of a tiny, dilapidated commercial strip in the heart of Watts. He had been the neighborhood barber since the 1950s. Some of his earliest patrons would bring their grandchildren to his faded storefront on South Wilmington Avenue, where Mitchell quietly fretted over escalating crime and violence.

“If you were destitute,” one Los Angeles Police Department officer said Thursday, “he’d give you a haircut for free.”

But on Wednesday, neighborhood violence caught up with Mitchell. At nightfall, the quiet man that everyone seemed to love was killed by a gunman who ambushed him at the rear of his shop as he was leaving for home. Police said the motive may have been robbery, but the assailant apparently fled before getting any money.

Investigators were calling upon the community for information or witnesses to the murder.

“Right now, we don’t have any leads,” said Detective Tal Terrell of the LAPD Homicide Bureau, who said Mitchell was shot “multiple times” in the upper body and left lying near his car. “We have nothing.”

The crime seemed to rock the troubled inner-city neighborhood, where Mitchell doggedly continued to work well beyond retirement age. On Thursday, busy Wilmington Avenue near 112th Street was crowded with men and women discussing what had happened and asking why.

One of Mitchell’s three sons, Charles Jr., 36, came mostly to stare at the small, gated shop with a “Closed” sign in the window. The younger Mitchell said he spent many days of his childhood at the shop, drawing with crayons and cleaning up. He described his father as a “diligent, hard-working man” and avid golfer who was well aware of the neighborhood’s crime.

The elder Mitchell kept a pistol in a barbershop drawer, but never got a chance to use it.

“He was cautious, but he wasn’t afraid,” the son said, tears welling in his eyes. “I’m hurt. It’s a shame, man, that they took his life.”

Charles McCoy, 67, who was picking up three young children from a nearby school, learned of Mitchell’s death and was outraged. McCoy had been taking his youngest son to Mitchell for two years.

“The poor old man! He’s a beautiful man,” McCoy said, growing teary-eyed, then loudly indignant. “They should take the (killers) out and shoot them! . . . I don’t like it!”

Al Payne, a furniture salesman who shared the building with Mitchell for 17 years, described him “one of the most beautiful people you’d ever want to meet.” Though he had been asked about selling his property only six months ago, Mitchell wanted to stay on and keep barbering, Payne said.

Another merchant, Adolph Palmer, 44, heard the gunshots Wednesday night and ran to his own front door to look out--and to lock it. Palmer said it seemed strange that the collapsible metal gate across the doorway of Mitchell’s shop was open at a time when it should have been closed. Although Mitchell generally closed his shop at 6 p.m., he often remained behind to count receipts. Police said the shooting took place at 6:48 p.m.

“That bar door is never open,” Palmer said, speculating that the gunman knew Mitchell and entered the shop before the killing.

Mitchell was found by police who heard the shots and was taken by paramedics to Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Investigators said they suspect that the killer must have been familiar with Mitchell’s nightly routine, in which he left through his rear door in an area protected by a six-foot security gate.

Evidently, the gunman had entered the yard at a time when Mitchell had it open, police said.

“We have a feeling the suspect . . . lives in the area,” said LAPD Lt. Rich Molony.

Among many community residents, the murder merely underscored the danger of the streets. Joe Fornis, 64, the owner of an auto dealership and parts store across the street, talked of the many, many times he has been burglarized--five times this year alone. Fornis said Mitchell was brave to stay open till 6 each night.

“When it’s dark, I’m out of here,” Fornis said, adding that he may sell his business and move. “I’m preparing to leave by 4:30. By quarter till 5, I’m taking off.”

Police asked that tips be telephoned to a newly established hot line: (213) 237-1776.