Man turns himself into Aberdeen police after barber shop robbery

ABERDEEN, Miss. (WCBI) – A 19-year-old man has turned himself in to Aberdeen Police.

Police say he admitted to being part of an armed robbery at a long-time local business.

Kevin Straughter runs a barber shop from his home on Hardy Street.

He says he’s been running the shop for almost 30 years and has dozens of clients.

He never expected one of those clients would rob him at gunpoint.

At around 7 p.m. Thursday night Aberdeen Police received a call that Kevin Straughter’s Barber Shop on Hardy Street had been robbed.

“Two guys come through the door with masks on their face and guns sticking out. They came in here and they demanded money,” said Straughter.

Straughter was busy with a client at the time of the robbery.

“He told him to get down on the floor and I’m over here and I told them like, I’m going to give you your money, just hold up. So when I get ready to give him the money, he had his gun and hit me in the ear. He busted my ear.”

But that wasn’t all.

The robbers went through his desk and cash box – and even stole his client’s wallet.

“When they got everything they ran to the door, backing out the door, and they just left out.”

Straughter said he recognized one of the men as a former client.

“One of the guys I knew. I knew him through the mask. I could see his face. I recognized him, but I didn’t let him know I recognized him, but I recognized him. He used to come over here sometimes and buy stuff.”

“As a matter of fact he’s cut the suspects hair before when he was a little boy and has known him all his life, so the mask didn’t really hide nothing. He knew who he was,” said Aberdeen Assistant Police Chief Quinell Shumpert.

That suspect, the former client, ended up turning himself in the next morning.

“Anthony James Strong, 19-year-old black male, he gave us a statement admitting to his part in the incident and he’s been placed in the Monroe County Jail where he’s awaiting arraignment,’ said Shumpert.

Straughter said he never expected something like this from a client.

“I was shocked! I’m thinking somebody just, they must be playing around or something, you know, but when they kept pointing the gun at us and they said ‘Give me the money!’ I’m like hold up, I’m thinking, I know this ain’t happening to me with people I know,” said Straughter.

Assistant Police Chief Shumpert says they know who the second suspect is, and they are currently in the process of trying to find him.

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