1 dead, 2 injured in Detroit barber shop shooting - Los Angeles Local News, Weather, and Traffic

An aunt wept Tuesday after her nephew was murdered inside the Visible Change barber shop on the city's west side at Dexter and Joy Roads.  Also inside and also shot were the longtime barber there and a guy from the neighborhood just visiting the shop.

A prayer was offered for that barber, Stanley Kirby, who was shot as many as five times and is in critical condition.  There were also prayers for Gary Anderson, who was shot in the hand.  Both were taken to Henry Ford Hospital.

And there were prayers and sadness for 24-year-old Jaron Gist, also known as J.R.  He died inside the barber shop.  His automatic handgun was found underneath his lifeless body.  It's not clear why anyone would want him dead.

The gunfire may have started outside, and Gist may have run into the barber shop to get away.   He may have fired back with Kirby and Anderson caught in the crossfire.

Numerous shell casings were covered with coffee cups as Detroit Police processed the crime scene.

"Stanley is okay.  Three of them went out, two of them [are] in.  He's talking.  He's stable, but right now he has surgery and we need prayer for his stomach," a woman said.

It appears Kirk and Anderson are expected to be okay, but for Gist's grieving family nothing is okay.  They told us he was a student at Henry Ford Community College.  His own mother was murdered when he was just eight-months-old.  He was a father of six and stepfather to four.  Those children will also grow up as he did without a parent.

The mothers of his children gathered with his aunts, uncles and cousins to mourn, and any peace the old barber chairs once offered to the customers and to the community has been shattered.

"We solve all the world's problems at the barber shop, politics, sports, religion, you name it.  We philosophize.  We do all that stuff, and this is just an unwarranted intrusion into the peace that we have come to know in this community," said barber shop customer Bill Hunter.

Witnesses told investigators they did not recognize the gunman they saw running from the scene.  They're asking anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP.