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Two men used their Second Amendment freedoms to prevent a robbery and save lives last week. The events took place in the Next Up Barbershop and Beauty Salon in Columbia, South Carolina — mere miles from Sporting Classics‘ and Sporting Classics Daily‘s home office.
Two men entered Next Up shortly before 7 p.m Saturday, wearing masks and waving guns in the faces of employees and customers. Next Up’s Chauncey Harris was ordered to the ground as the men demanded money.
“He smacked me in the back of my head, and I said, ‘Okay, this is probably when he’s going to shoot me now and just set an example and walk on out the door with the money,'” Harris told WTOL 11.
The rest of the shop’s occupants, including several children, were ordered to put their hands behind their heads while the men went through their pockets.
Unbeknownst to the robbers and everyone else, two men had valid CWP permits and were carrying at the time.
According to news station KSDK 5, the two men — out of respect for the CWP holders’ privacy, we will not publish their names here — cooperated with the robbers in appearances only. When the robbers demanded their money, one of the CWP holders pointed to a chair and said his money was over there. When the robber walked to the chair the CWP holder drew, followed closely by the second concealed carrier.
“But that’s when my man let loose. That’s when everybody else had their stuff and was ready to take care of business,” Harris said.
They fired on the robbers and wounded at least one; he stumbled outside and died while the other fled the scene. The fatally shot man was later identified as Adeyemi Herschelle Hannibal, 37, of New Jersey.
The other man is still at-large but is presumably injured. The Columbia Police Department is investigating.
“If you know them, turn them in,” Master Barber Elmurray Bookman told KSDK. “Because if you don’t, they’re going to do somebody else like that and this time it could be an innocent victim getting killed.”
At least one of the weapons used by the robbers was stolen. It was reported stolen from a southern Columbia home in 2012.
Customers rallied to the shop within 24 hours, with young and old waiting in line for haircuts to show their support.
Sporting Classics and Sporting Classics Daily are proud of our hometown heroes and the Second Amendment rights they employed. Without them, a business would have been robbed and lives potentially lost. If you happen to know anything that might help law enforcement with the case, call 1-888-Crime-SC.
Cover Image: Columbia Police Department.