Paintball shooters ambush customers, workers in Charlotte barbershop

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A business owner said several masked men stormed into his barbershop Thursday afternoon and started shooting paintball guns.

The owner said he doesn’t know who the men are or why they initiated an attack.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department responded to a call in reference to property damage at Custom Cuts in east Charlotte in The Plaza on Thursday.

A witness sent Channel 9 photos of the suspected shooters about to storm into the shop.

A customer who was inside the shop at the time said the attack lasted less than a minute.

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"It scared the hell out of everybody," the customer said. "I remember seeing a gun, seeing masks and hearing a pop.”

Employees and customers at the barbershop had to dive to the ground for cover and were unsure why the men stormed in to shoot up the store.

One victim told reporter Stephanie Tinoco that he originally thought had been hit with real bullets.

"As I'm going to the ground, I get hit in my back and for five to 10 seconds, I'm thinking, 'Did I get shot?'” the victim said. “After they left, everybody was ghost-faced, and then we look up and realize these were paintballs. These guys were doing a paintball attack that you hear about on the news."

Channel 9 has covered several recent paintball incidents across Charlotte. The most recent one involved a 2-year old who was hit while in her yard.

The police department has received more than 150 calls and filed dozens of reports since the beginning of the year.

Barber Ivan Mason told Channel 9 the attack on Thursday scared customers and left paint splatters everywhere.

“The customer I had in the chair at the time, he fell, jumped on top of me trying to cover himself,” Mason said. “(Paint) was all over the walls and windows all around the shop. They just pretty much shot up the shop.”

Mason fears attacks such as this one could turn deadly.

“It’s a scary situation,” Mason said. “The average person ain’t going to take the time to think whether or not it's a paintball gun or a gun. They're going to shoot you."

Cox Media Group