http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050615/NEWS03/506150321/1062Armed robber gets extreme makeover
Group defends beauty school by attacking, holding suspect for police
June 15, 2005
By Francis McCabe
It was a beauty school knock-out.
An armed robber brandishing a revolver and some tough talk entered
Blalock's Beauty College demanding money Tuesday afternoon.
He left crying, bleeding and under arrest, after Dianne Mitchell, her
students and employees attacked the suspect, beating him into submission.
Mitchell tripped the robber as he tried to leave and cried aloud "get
that sucker" as the group of about 20, nearly all women, some wielding
curling irons, bludgeoned him until police arrived.
"You can tell the world don't mess with the women here," said the
53-year-old who manages the Shreveport beauty school in the 5400 block
of Mansfield Road.
Jared Gipson, 24, of Shreveport was charged with armed robbery,
Shreveport police said. He will be booked into the City Jail once he is
released from the hospital.
"He received several lacerations to the head and was taken to LSU
Hospital in Shreveport," spokeswoman Kacee Hargrave said. "Nobody else
was seriously injured besides the suspect."
About 3 p.m., the workers and students sat around the beauty salon,
recounting their tale, like warriors after a great battle.
A little before noon the students and workers were cleaning up when the
robber walked up quietly behind Mitchell and said, "This is a holdup,"
she recalled.
"I thought it was someone just playing, but then I saw that big old gun.
He said 'get down big momma.'"
The robber, a tall, thin man wearing a handkerchief over his face and a
skull cap, barked out orders to the other people in the school to get
down on the floor, Mitchell said.
As the group complied, some of the women began to cry. The robber didn't
react kindly, telling one of the women she would "be the first to go,"
Mitchell said.
After collecting any money the people had on them, the robber pushed one
of the employees, Abram Bishop, into the back of the room.
"I thought 'Oh my God, he's going to shoot him,'" Mitchell said.
But instead the robber ran toward the front door to escape.
That's when Mitchell raised her leg.
It was enough to trip the robber, who dropped the gun and tumbled into a
wall.
Bishop jumped on the man's back, driving him into the ground. Seizing
the opportunity, Mitchell rallied her students.
"We moved some furniture after that," she yelped with joy as she retold
the tale.
Arming themselves with curling irons, chairs, a wooden table leg and
clenched fists, the women attacked.
Blood and urine splattered from the victim; stains adorned the white
paints worn by many of the beauty school students.
Crying in pain, the robber tried to crawl away from the students,
Mitchell said.
"I grabbed his legs and wouldn't let him go. I pulled him back. He
wasn't going to get up out of here and tell everyone he robbed us. When
he came in here, he knocked down a beehive and sent the bees flying all
over."
Sharon Blalock, owner of the school, said she couldn't be prouder of her
students and employees. "They just whooped the hell out of him."
Sgt. Kevin Crow, head of the Shreveport police armed robbery unit, said
he was happy no one was hurt but was quick to point out that not all of
these situations end well.
"Legally you can always defend yourself if you feel threatened," Crow
said. "But is this the best idea? No.
"Any time you are going against a guy with a gun, you have to ask
yourself if your life is worth risking over some material item you have
in your store or on your person. When it works out it's great ... but
when it doesn't, usually the results are pretty tragic," Crow said.
The gun, police learned later, was not loaded. But there was no remorse
from the students.
"He got what he deserved," Renae Collier, 26, said. Collier's engagement
ring was broken at some point during the melee.
"I'm just relieved he didn't get away," student Gladys Woods, 24, said.
"He probably would have come back if we didn't stop him."
Police are continuing their investigation into the incident, suggesting
it might lead to more charges against Gipson. "He will be looked at as a
suspect in other robberies in the area," Detective J.E. Cromer said.
The Family Dollar in the 2600 block of Hollywood Avenue and a Chevron
gas station at the corner of Hollywood and Hearne Avenue are two other
businesses in the area that have been robbed recently.
Early Tuesday, before the robbery, Mitchell had gathered her students
and told them they needed to watch out for one another.
"It's like we were saying in class, we have to stay together as a team,"
Mitchell said. "You can tell any prospective students, Blalock's Beauty
College has got your back."
― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Thursday, 16 June 2005 02:20 (twenty years ago)
And there is such thing as excessive self-defence, there are laws against it, though I can't say whether it's the case here.-- Tuomas (tuomas.alh...), June 16th, 2005 4:40 PM. (later)
"It's 2am in the morning, and frail 86-year old widow Doris Hairnet wakes with a start to the sound of glass breaking in he kitchen. Trembling with fear, she tiptoes onto the landing and peers over the bannister. With horror, she sees a shadowy figure coming up the stairs towards her. Blindly Doris fumbles for the light switch. It is then she sees him.
Six foot eight inches of anger and malice, high on crack and wielding a twelve-inch carving knife. Doris tries to beg for mercy, but the words will not come. Sheer blind terror has robbed her of her voice. The intruder's cruel face twists into a mask of pure hatred. "Die you fucking bitch," he snarls as he raises his knife high above her cowering figure.
Instinctively, Doris raises her frail arthritic hands to protect herself from the voley of razor sharp blows she knows must only be seconds away...
Suddenly, a shout goes up. "Stop! Police! You're under arrest!" Doris breathes a sigh of relief. But her relief is short-lived as a burly constable handcuffs her and bundles her into the back of his police van.
In court, it is revealed that she has inadvertantly scratched the burglar's lip while cowering. She is found guilty of using disproportionate force against a burglar, and is sentenced to 8 years in prison. The robber later claims compensation for his lip injury, and Doris is forced to pay him a hundred thousand pounds..."
― Sasha (sgh), Thursday, 16 June 2005 09:54 (twenty years ago)
four years pass...