The family of London Powers, a 21-year-old North Carolina Central University student, says she had long been the victim of domestic abuse and had repeatedly sought police protection before her tragic death this week.
Powers, a Washington, D.C. native and member of NCCU’s honors program, was shot Monday afternoon at the Camden Pointe Apartments in Durham by her ex-boyfriend, 23-year-old Damien Tinsley.
Authorities said Tinsley was pronounced dead at the scene, while Powers was rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. She died Tuesday morning, Aug. 19, 2025.
According to a close friend, Powers had been in the process of moving out of the apartment she once shared with Tinsley when he showed up unannounced and began arguing with her.
“She was trying to leave,” her friend, Shiann Boyd, told ABC11, adding that Powers had confided her fear for her safety.
“She was also saying, like, she would never deal with no man like that again. She said she knows the signs to look for, and she would just like, leave if a man ever came to her acting like that ever again.”
University leaders remembered Powers as a promising social work major with a passion for serving others.
In a statement, NCCU said, “London’s professors and peers will remember her as vibrant, hard-working, and supportive — a student who poured her heart into her social work cohort.”
The case has stirred outrage and sorrow across campus and online, where many are demanding stronger protections for women who report abuse. Advocates say Powers’ death reflects a devastating pattern in which warnings about intimate partner violence are too often overlooked until it is too late.
For her family, the tragedy is a painful reminder of both London’s bright future and the life cut short by violence.
“We will continue to keep this family in our thoughts and prayers,” one community member wrote.
