We’re learning more about the chaotic and terrifying encounter between an armed robber and the customers and staff at a San Antonio beauty salon this week, including some new details about the armed citizen who put a stop to the robbery attempt.
Initial police and media reports described the 26-year-old as a co-owner of Marissa’s Beauty Salon, but according to one hairstylist who spoke to News4 San Antonio, it was actually a customer who stepped up and defended her and others.
t was thirty minutes before closing when a masked man holding a gun barged in demanding everyone’s property, according to the hairstylist named Nancy, who declined to give her last name.
“Money, cell phones,” Nancy remembers the man shouting. “Money, cell phones, purse. Money, money.”
There were only three people inside the salon at the time: Nancy, her 26-year-old customer and another hairstylist.
“It all happened so fast,” Nancy said in Spanish. “In the 18 years I’ve been working here, nothing like this has ever happened.”
At first, she thought it was a joke.
“But when he got closer, I saw his eyes,” she said. “He seemed like he was on something, and I said, ‘This is not a game. This is real.'”
The other hairstylist screamed and ran over to stand next to Nancy and her customer as the man with the gun became increasingly irate.
“And then he pointed the gun at us and said, ‘Don’t move, don’t move.’ So, we didn’t move,” Nancy explained. “Then he asked us why we weren’t getting him the money from the register, and I said, ‘Well, because you told me not to move.'”
Nancy says that’s when the customer addressed the robber, informing him that there wasn’t much money in the shop because the day’s take had already been deposited at the bank. The robber then turned his attention to the 26-year-old, beating him with the butt of the handgun.
Nancy says right after he pistol-whipped the customer, the would-be robber ordered him onto the ground and started to Zip-Tie him. He was about to tie up the customer’s legs when the customer – still on his knees – pulled out his own gun, swung around and shot the robber at least three times.
“It was impressive,” Nancy said. “It was like he was Agent 007.”
The robber, identified as 50-year-old Victor Cardenas, was taken to a local hospital after police and EMS responded to the scene, but passed awa from his injuries a short time later.
According to Nancy, the customer was supposed to be at the salon earlier in the evening, but he told her that he was running late because he had stopped by his house to get his gun.
“I don’t know if he already felt that something was going to happen, but he went to his house and said, ‘I’m going to get a haircut, but I came for my gun.'”, she told News4 San Antonio, adding, “He’s my hero.”
The heroic armed citizen hasn’t given any interviews of his own to the media, and we may never learn his identify or what prompted him to detour to his house and get his handgun before heading to the barbershop. Regardless of the reason, Nancy is certainly grateful that her customer was willing and able to defend those inside the salon, and I’m pretty sure he’ll be keeping his gun with him whenever possible from here on out.
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