Friends remember slain Saugus skate shop owner

SAUGUS – Friends and fellow skateboarders are mourning the loss of Saugus resident, skateboarding advocate and war veteran Shawn Clark, who was fatally shot outside his skate shop in Malden.?He was the guy who was really positive, the guy that made it a good time,” Broderick Gumpright, the owner of Orchard Skateshop in Allston, recalled Wednesday. “I think he really strongly believed in skateboarding and doing good things for skateboarding.”Police responded at 12:44 p.m. Tuesday to Clark?s shop, Patriot Skateboards on Main Street, Malden, where they found Clark, 39, with multiple gunshot wounds.Clark was taken to Melrose-Wakefield Hospital in Melrose, where he was pronounced dead.Clark leaves family including a wife and two young sons. Family members say Clark served in Iraq and Afghanistan while in the Marines, and it had always been his dream to open a skateboard shop.Nobody answered the door at the family?s home Wednesday, and Clark?s wife could not be reached.Clark first operated a skateboard shop in Saugus in 2010, then opened the Malden store in 2011, according to the Patriot Skateboards Facebook page.But Gumpright said that Clark also had dreams for the skateboarding community.?He had been coming to the meetings here for the Charles River Skatepark and he was a huge enthusiast for it, definitely outspoken for it,” Gumpright said of the long-planned project.Clark attended a Saugus Board of Selectmen meeting in September 2011, along with more than two dozen teens, to advocate for a local skate park.?It is inequitable that there are spaces for every other athlete out there but not these skateboarders,” Clark said at the meeting.The Patriot Skateboard Facebook page emphasizes the iconoclasm of skateboard culture – describing Patriot?s Saugus location as becoming “the front line for conflict for the aggressive anti-skateboarding do-gooders and the local skateboarders who wanted nothing more than to enjoy themselves.”But Saugus officials praised Clark and his passion for helping kids and promoting skateboarding.?He genuinely loved and was passionate about the sport, and genuinely was concerned about the image of skateboarders,” said Saugus Youth and Recreation Director Greg Nickolas, who worked with Clark last year to advocate for the skate park in Saugus. “He was just a knowledgeable guy and was very passionate about the industry. A lot of energy and just a nice guy.”Saugus resident Kim Novak said while she didn?t know Clark well, her kids could often be found at his shop.?He wanted them to do what he loved to do: skate,” she said. He was great to the kids.”With the town “just getting back on its feet,” Nickolas said he wants to discuss the skate park with Town Manager Scott Crabtree “at the appropriate time.”James Nigro, a junior at Saugus High School, called Clark?s death “a disgrace.”?It?s just completely disgusting that that?s the way he died after four years serving in the military,” said Nigro, 17. “It?s terrible.”Nigro said he joined a candlelight vigil for Clark in Malden Tuesday and then started a vigil with four friends in Saugus.On Wednesday morning, 14 white candles sat lined up on the sidewalk outside the old store, which is now Bella Noelle Dance Attire, on Jackson Street next to George?s Barbershop.Nigro said he plans to take up the skate park project once again to honor Clark, and took to Twitter Wednesday to spread the word.?I?m not going to take no for an answer,” said Nigro.?I?m not an adult. I?m 17 and I?m just a teenager. But I have a lot of heart and a lot of the heart I have is from Shawn, because he?s going to live on through the lessons he taught us.”Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected]. Cyrus Moulton can be reached at [email protected].