BURLINGTON, Iowa – Eddie Breuer, a Burlington man, is now being remembered at People’s Choice Barber Shop after he was beaten to death in March.
Finding a barber is like finding a friend – you can only trust one guy.
Rick Abernathy is a barber at People’s Choice and is tight with a lot of his clients, but one he calls a cut above the rest.
“Oh yeah, I knew Eddie, I knew Eddie for about 35 years,” says Abernathy.
Breuer was a custodian and long-time customer at the shop.
“His laugh, you will never hear a laugh like his,” mentions barber, Will Bruner.
“You could only hear it so long and then you were like ‘OK, that’s enough’,” says Barber, Nick Nelson.
But, it’s a laugh they’ll never hear again after Breuer’s death. Court documents say, Majestic Malone, 26, and Markell Dishe Price, 25, forced Breuer inside an apartment at 404 Acres Street in Burlington after Stanley Baldwin, 49, accused Breuer of breaking into the apartment. That’s when they carried him out and beat him to death.
“We couldn’t believe it,” says Nelson. “There’s no way that he would break into an apartment or anything.”
So much about Breuer’s death is still a mystery. Now, his friends are remembering him in a way he would have loved – by taking donations to pay for haircuts for the less fortunate.
“Eddie was down on his luck and we don’t like to see him that way, especially a guy like him for sure,” Nelson adds.
Breuer doesn’t sweep the flood here anymore, but he’s always looking down through pictures barbers have put up in the shop.
“His picture won’t go nowhere,” comments Nelson talking about the big one in the center of the shop. “That’ll be up there forever.”
Eddie Breuer, the guy everyone could depend on.
“You see him every day, it’s kind of strange that he’s just gone, you know?” Abernathy says.
Price, Malone, and Baldwin have all been arrested and remain in Des Moines County jail. The investigation is still ongoing.
Donations for the "Eddie Breuer Haircut Fundraiser" can be dropped off at People’s Choice Barber Shop. All the money made will be held by People’s Choice and will be used to pay for people who are in need of a haircut but cannot afford it.
