North Philadelphia Barbershop Owner Says Business Suffering Since Being Caught In Police Shootout
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- We're learning new details about a shootout involving police in North Philadelphia. A SWAT officer was shot while serving a search warrant.
A barbershop owner says his business was caught in the middle of the chaos.
Customers were getting their hair cut when all of a sudden, heavily-armed officers came into the barbershop and told them to get out.
Surveillance video shows law enforcement with long guns and helmets walking into Albert's Barbershop on Lehigh Avenue and 2nd Street in North Philadelphia, apparently searching for a suspected drug dealer.
'They come and, you know, 'everybody shut up, everybody. Can you turn off the music? Everybody come on and sit here,'" barber Domingo Diaz said. "We were scared."
Customers were getting their hair cut on Feb. 11 when officers started frisking employees, eventually ordering everyone to get up and go outside.
Barbers had to go to the police station for questioning.
Police damaged the back door while they searching for the suspect, says the owner of the barbershop, Jose Albert Almonte Garcia.
He wants the city to pay for the repair.
Eventually, police took Kristian Reyes into custody. Police say Reyes was hoarding drugs and manufacturing pills in a third-floor apartment above the barbershop.
Reyes is being held on $3.5 million bail and is charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting a police officer in his bulletproof vest.
"The way the police ordered us out looked bad. People think we did something wrong, that we had something to do with what happened upstairs," barber Stanley Rodriguez said.
Some customers have been scared to come back.
On any given day, barbers say all six of their chairs would be seating clients. Now, the chairs are mostly empty.
"We wanted our customers to know that they should not be afraid of coming because we've never had a problem. We are good people," Diaz said.
The owner of the barbershop says he doesn't know the man upstairs who was arrested for dealing drugs and his business has nothing to do with the illegal drugs. The owner says he is just renting in the same building.
CBS3 reached out to police for comment. They say the owner can file a grievance with the city if he feels he was mistreated.
