Machete-wielding robber shot dead at Jasper County barbershop

A man was killed in an apparent self-defense shooting as he tried to rob an employee at a Ridgeland barbershop Thursday morning, according to police.

The person who shot him and three others inside the Main Street business were uninjured.

The suspected robber, identified as 55-year-old Ridgeland resident Curtis Edward Scott, was fatally shot by an employee of Jay’s Barber Shop after entering the business through the back door around 10:30 a.m., wearing a ski mask and carrying a machete.

As Scott appeared to raise the machete, one barber grabbed his pistol and fired one round that struck Scott in the chest, according to the Ridgeland Police Department.

Scott fled out the back exit but collapsed beside his vehicle that was parked behind the building, said Lt. Daniel Litchfield of the RPD. He was pronounced dead shortly after.

The shooting seemed to be an act of self-defense based on officers’ initial findings, Litchfield said, although the circumstances of the incident remained under investigation. Police obtained the barbershop’s surveillance footage and interviewed the four witnesses, including one customer, who all provided similar accounts of the incident.