From the SPD Blotter:
On October 24th at approximately 6:37 p.m. two male suspects wearing all black clothing and ski masks and armed with handguns walked into a hair salon located in the 2300 block of 15th Avenue South.
Victim #1, a female employee, was at the rear of the salon and walked to the front when she heard the door chime. As she walked into the front area of the salon, one of the suspects grabbed her by the shirt and ordered her to the floor. Both suspects demanded money from her. She gave them cash.
Victim #2, a male employee who was also inside the salon, heard the noise and went to victim #1’s location. There he was contacted by one of the suspects and ordered at gun point to walk to the back of the business.
Victim #1 was able to run out of the salon when one of the suspects had briefly left her location. She ran across the street to a gas station for assistance. Both suspects fled the business when they discovered victim #1 had escaped.
Both victims and several citizens in the area heard one or two gunshots as the suspects fled the area. No property damage to the business or adjacent buildings was found by officers. Neither victim was injured during the incident. The suspects remain at large.
Anyone with information about this incident or who may know the identities or whereabouts of the suspects is asked to call 911 or Seattle Police immediately and refer to this incident.
I don’t understand why anyone would try to rob that salon. Reminds me of places I worked in NYC.. we had a buzzer/door release thing to let people in because of so many crazy people. Might be a good idea for some businesses in the area.
It’s really hard to balance taking the risk of committing an armed robbery against the amount of cash you’re likely to get from a small hair salon. Clearly these guys are not the smartest criminals around, which makes them even more dangerous.
What I think is much more likely is that the crooks had some sort of association with the business owner, and might have known, or suspected, that there was more money than usual there.
Many hair salons in the area are cash only businesses, it’s actually not a bad idea to hit them. This is concerning, I haven’t seen it on the blogs yet but Paris’ Bakery by 16 Av S/S Lucile St was robbed at gunpoint just the day prior.
I’ve lived here for just about 7 years now, and can’t remember the last time we had two armed robberies back to back like this.
Stay safe out there!