It’s not every day that a man rushes into a local barber shop with a machete and threatens everyone inside in a robbery attempt, but that’s what unfolded in South Carolina Thursday morning.
Investigators believe it was business as usual at around 10:30 a.m. when 55-year-old Curtis Scott burst into the Ridgeland establishment wearing a ski mask. Witnesses reported that he brandished the weapon and announced, “You know what this is.”
The encounter would quickly take a dark turn.
An armed barber may have been the difference between life and death
As employees and customers feared for their lives, one of the barbers produced his legal weapon and fired.
Scott immediately ran out of the barber shop to his vehicle but was unable to go any further due to the extent of his injuries. He collapsed there, and responders pronounced him dead when they arrived.
Authorities continue to search for a second suspect who fled after the shot was fired
In a twist, investigators now believe that Scott had an accomplice. Another man entered through the back of the business with him, only to flee when the gunshot was fired.
That suspect has not been identified or located.
Authorities also learned from employees that Scott visited the barber shop the day before the alleged robbery attempt. It is unclear whether he was preparing to return on Thursday morning.
The deceased’s family is understandably in shock after losing their loved one in such a manner. They insist that Scott was a sick man, having been diagnosed a decade ago with multiple mental challenges.
“We are just, just so sorry,” Lahoma Scott, Curtis’s sister, told reporters after the horrific news. “This that transpired was wrong. It was wrong by any means; it was wrong. I’m sure that that barber experienced something like that, and the customers in there, scared and fearful for their [lives]. He did what he had to do, you know, to protect his customers and himself.”
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