Longtime worker at Frager?s Hardware fatally shot on Memorial Day
For the loyal customers at Frager’s Ace Hardware store on Capitol Hill, Frank Winchester was the employee they wanted to see the most.
He not only came up with that hard-to-find part for your century-old rowhouse, he also might come over and install it. He didn’t just deliver your mulch, he also might take it out back and spread it. If you bought something that needed assembling, he might assemble it.
“I hated his days off,” said Winchester’s boss on Frager’s delivery team, Larry Carnevale. “It made my day so much easier knowing he was there.”
The 40-year-old Winchester, who with his longtime girlfriend was raising their 2-year-old son, was fatally shot shortly before 9 p.m. on Memorial Day in the 1400 block of L Street SE, steps from where he once lived and a block from where he had grown up, near the Potomac Avenue Metro station.
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He died at a hospital, the District’s 79th homicide victim in the first five months of a year in which killings are rising. Police and relatives said they did not know of a possible motive; no arrests have been made in Monday night’s killing. His sister said he had been visiting a friend in that area.
“He was a 100 percent nice guy, no troublemaker,” said Winchester’s uncle, Daryl Winchester. “He was a family man first, but Frager’s was his second home.”
Growing up on Capitol Hill meant Winchester knew many residents before he took the job at Frager’s more than a dozen years ago. He was familiar with the neighborhood’s old homes and deftly helped customers who came searching for just the right screw or doorknob. And he made even more friends while on the job.
“People would look him up because he would know exactly what they needed,” Daryl Winchester said.
Frager’s, a century-old neighborhood institution on Capitol Hill, announced it would close early Friday so employees could attend a vigil planned for 7:30 p.m. at the spot where Winchester was shot. They are raising money to help his son.
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Customers and former co-workers at Frager’s filled the comments section of the store’s Facebook page with fond memories and tributes. Among them was Katie Hodges, who recalled in an interview how a decade ago Winchester lifted her 4-year-old son into the seat of his forklift so the delighted boy could “drive.”
Hodges said that about two years ago, she ran into Winchester near her home. He eagerly coaxed her over to his car so she could see his newborn son. She said Winchester made her feel “part of a place,” noting that every time she walked by Frager’s she thought, “I wonder if I’ll see Frank today.”
Winchester mostly worked for Frager’s delivery team, which became essential during the pandemic.
“He never made a customer feel they didn’t know what they were talking about,” said the store’s owner, Gina Schaefer. “He was one of those rare people who made customers feel their requests were special. ... He didn’t meet anybody who didn’t want to be his friend.”
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Carnevale, his boss, said Winchester “was a customer favorite” who “thrived on seeing people smile. He went above and beyond to get that smile. That was just his mission.”
Carnevale recalled a day when Winchester didn’t want to go to lunch because he was short on cash. Carnevale offered to pay, and as the two walked to the restaurant, a homeless man asked for money. He said Winchester reached into his pocket, “pulled out his last dollar and a few pennies,” and handed them over.
He said a customer came into the store Wednesday and bought plants to be delivered. She asked, “Is there any way you can send Frank, because he’s amazing.” Carnevale nearly broke down in tears. All he could manage was to tell the woman, “I’m afraid Frank’s not available anymore.”
He added, “I didn’t have the heart to tell her.”
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Kearnda Winchester, 38, said her brother could point out Frager’s customers while riding in a car down the street. The store, she said, “is all you would hear him talking about.”
His personality didn’t change when he got home. “Anytime we called him,” Kearnda Winchester said, referring to his siblings, “he would stop what he was doing and come to our need.” He treated her children as his own.
His girlfriend of 13 years, Shamara Baylor, 35, said Winchester was best friends with their son, who turned 2 on May 17. When he got home from work, she said, “They didn’t speak, they just looked into each other’s eyes.” She said her son stopped playing when his father walked into the room.
“He didn’t want nobody but his dad,” Baylor said.
Winchester had turned 40 two days before Memorial Day, and his mother, who now lives in Prince George’s County, had made him dinner. He was running behind that night, and his family decided to pack up the food so he could eat later.
He never made it home.
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