The 22-year-old robber was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The other three men — the barbershop owner, another barber and a customer — weren't seriously wounded.
More than a dozen people, including several kids, were in KB Barber Shop & Style, 1056 Diagonal Road, at the time of the shooting shortly after 9 p.m.
''It seems to be so crazy,'' said Akron City Council President Marco Sommerville, who represents Ward 3, where the shop is located. ''It's a sign of the times — how bad things are — people robbing a barbershop.''
The popular barbershop's clientele includes LeBron James.
Akron detectives are still interviewing witnesses and trying to determine what happened, said Lt.
Rick Edwards, the department's spokesman, who was at the scene of the shooting until about 3 a.m. Thursday.
Here's what police do know:
Leon L. Walker of Bacon Street entered the shop about 9:15 p.m. with a handgun and demanded money. Shots were fired between Walker and another person in the shop.
Walker ran out of the shop, beside the building and made it about two houses down.
Officers arrived and found Walker collapsed by a tree and three other men shot inside the barbershop.
The other shooting victims were: Kevin A. Brown, 33, of Orlando Avenue, a barber and the shop's owner; Derek L. Davis, 34, of East Avenue, a customer; and Scott J. Arrington, 39, of Amelia Avenue, a barber.
Brown and Davis were taken to Akron City Hospital. Arrington and Walker were transported to Akron General Medical Center, where Walker was pronounced dead about 9:45 p.m., according to the Summit County medical examiner's office.
The wounds to Brown, Davis and Arrington were ''non-life threatening,'' Edwards said.
Edwards said police don't want to release additional information until they have talked to all of the witnesses. He said it ''isn't clear'' yet whether anyone will be charged.
This photo was taken by Paul Ware Jr. 24 hours before the incident at KB's Barbershop, following the recording of Hip Hop Flavas on Tues., Nov. 25th at the 91.3 THE SUMMIT studio on Steiner Ave. Pictured (center) with Big Ish and Don Juan is Kevin Brown (KB). Please make all donations to The KB's Barbershop Benevolent Fund at all local First Merit Banks.
Walker was shot in the torso. The medical examiner's office was to perform an autopsy this morning.
Walker has twice been convicted for possession of cocaine and once for drug abuse of marijuana, according to court records.
His most recent brush with the law was in March when he was arrested on a warrant for drug abuse. At the time, he was with two other men who allegedly had just held up a man at a Marathon Gas station in Copley Township.
KB Barber Shop is no stranger to tragedy. Two men who formerly were barbers at the shop were killed in two separate incidents in the Atlanta area in 2000 and 2002.
Richard Lollar, a former KB barber, and his friend, Jacinth Baker, also an Akron native, were fatally stabbed outside an Atlanta club after a Super Bowl party in January 2000. NFL star Ray Lewis and two other men were charged. Lewis pleaded guilty to an obstruction charge but the other two were acquitted. No one else has been charged.
In an unrelated incident in August 2002, Lemetrius Twitty, who witnessed the deaths of Lollar and Baker, was found shot to death in his apartment outside Atlanta. The former Akron resident had worked as a KB barber.
Twitty was one of three men killed by two women who were offering men sex for money and then robbing and killing them, police said.
Customers and barbers at KB were angry and upset about the deaths of Lollar and Baker.
Arrington, one of the men who was shot Wednesday night, was among those who shared his views with the Akron Beacon Journal in February 2000. He said at the time that he thought Lewis was to blame.
''As a superstar, he should have done something to stop this,'' Arrington said. ''This didn't have to be.''
Sommerville said KB is a popular spot that doesn't generate complaints. The councilman pointed to recent attempts to improve the neighborhood, including the construction of the new Crouse elementary school, near the barbershop.
''People are fed up with these kind of things happening,'' he said. ''The law-abiding citizens are sick of it.''
Some local residents plan to set up a fund at First Merit Bank to benefit the barbers who were shot and might not be able to return to work for a while. (The fund will be under the name of the barbershop.)
''It's the holiday season,'' said Paul Ware of Akron, a longtime KB customer. ''We really want to rally around them.''
Ware interviewed the KB barbers Tuesday for a hip-hop radio show that will air at 10 p.m. Saturday on WAPS-91.3 FM. He said the show focuses on the importance of barbershops in the black community.
''The next day, something like this happens,'' Ware said.
