CLEVELAND (WJW) – FOX 8 has obtained surveillance video showing the moments right after five people were shot inside a Cleveland barbershop on Thursday.
Three victims were customers and two were barbers. Friends of the wounded barbers say they underwent leg surgery earlier Friday at MetroHealth Medical Center.
One of the customers was shot in the chest and critically injured.
Cleveland police are reviewing video from inside the barbershop, but another business across the street caught some of the chaos as well.
The IFIXUGLY barbershop on State Road in Cleveland’s Old Brooklyn neighborhood was back open for business Friday, a day after the shooting.
“I’m standing here, we’re talking. I hear gunshots, I hear, ‘pop, pop, pop,’ so I was like, ‘What was that?'” said the owner of a barbershop across the street, who did not want to give his name. “I heard gunshots, so then I go down, we go down.”
He showed FOX 8 surveillance video that his cameras captured at the time of the shooting, around 3 p.m. Thursday. Right after the gunfire, one of the barbers is seen running across the street for help.
“She comes in and she’s bleeding. I said, ‘your hand’s bleeding,’ then I look down and I see the big old hole in her pants. I say ‘Hey, listen. Hey man, you been shot!’ You know, sit her down, grab a towel and put it on her leg. She calls 911,” he said.
The surveillance video also shows Cleveland police and EMS units arrive a few minutes later. The video shows the woman go back across the street to tell police that she had been shot.
“You open for business, you open to take care of the people of the community and crazy situations like this take place,” barbershop owner Tim Gillespie said a few hours after the shooting.
Gillespie said he was too busy to speak on camera Friday, but Thursday he told Fox 8 he believes whoever pulled the trigger was targeting the three customers who had come into the shop as walk-ins without an appointment.
He remained grateful that no one was killed.
“As many shots were fired, man, I don’t know how there wasn’t. Thank God that everybody’s OK. I’m praying for everybody involved, praying for my family, I’m praying for this community,” he said.
Cleveland police are looking for the red vehicle they say the gunman used to flee the scene. Meanwhile, even with signs of the tragedy still visible, including bullet holes in the front door, the neighborhood and the barbershop are trying to move forward.
“I wasn’t surprised because it happens all the time, everywhere, you know what I’m saying? It’s the same as if I was in the grocery store, Walmart, the movie theater, it happens,” said the shop owner across the street.
The victims are all between 19 and 34 years old. Police say four have non-life threatening injuries, and at last check, one was in critical condition at Metro.
We reached out to Cleveland police to see if there was an update. There have still been no arrests and police say a suspect was wearing a mask at the time of the shooting.