Montgomery County salon owner charged with murder after deadly dispute heard on 911 call
HATBORO, Pa. - One man is dead, while another is charged with his murder after a neighborhood dispute turned deadly over the weekend.
"It was very shocking, it really took me off guard," said Jay McColm, owner of Sky Blue Piercing.
On Saturday just before 6 p.m. police responded to a shooting that occurred in the parking lot near Razor Reese’s Salon and Spa, right next to McColm’s piercing shop.
"I heard what I thought were firecrackers. Of course, now I know those were gunshots, so, I went to go look out the window and I just saw somebody going from standing up to falling down backwards," said McColm.
Upon arrival, police found 37-year-old Stephen Strassburg of Hatboro suffering from multiple gunshot wounds in the parking lot.
Still on scene the suspected shooter, 41-year-old Maurice Byrd of Horsham, the owner of Razor. Reese’s Salon and Spa.
"I saw Maurice over there, and he said that he was on the phone with the police. I just didn’t know what to do at the time, all I saw was somebody who was bleeding really badly. I’m in a piercing shop, so I have things like gauzes around the shop. I just ran back in as quickly as I could, grabbed a bunch of gauze, went out and just held it on the wound, on his face, until the paramedics came," said McColm.
Strassburg was taken to a local hospital where he died.
Authorities later learned that Strassburg lived above the salon, and was in an ongoing dispute with its owner, 41-year-old Maurice Byrd.
According to the criminal complaint, Byrd says he was outside the shop smoking a cigarette in the parking lot when he was confronted by Strassburg, who began saying racial slurs toward him.
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The complaint goes on to say Byrd went back into his shop to get his phone and called 911.
He told dispatch that he was being verbally assaulted by Strassburg.
Byrd told detectives right before the shooting, that Strassburg had grabbed his shirt.
While still on the phone, dispatchers heard five gunshots, a pause, and then two more gunshots.
Seven casings were recovered at the scene along with a semi-automatic handgun registered to Byrd, who has a valid permit to carry.
Byrd is charged with First-Degree Murder, Third-Degree Murder and Possessing an Instrument of Crime.
He is currently being held at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility where he awaits an arraignment.
As for those living and working in the usually quiet area, many are still a little shaken up.
"Totally unexpected, I mean nothing like that ever happens around here," said McColm.