Armed hairdresser pursues suspects

(By Erik)

The headline pretty much says it all.

Before I moved to Oklahoma to work for The Christian Chronicle, I was a reporter for the Savannah Morning News in the great state of Georgia. My beat was cops and crime. Here’s a “flashback” article that I wrote for the Savannah paper back in 1999. Rarely does a haircut go by that I don’t think of John “Mad Dog” Partain.

By Erik Tryggestad
Savannah Morning News
October 30, 1999

Two alleged purse snatchers got more than they bargained for when a hairdresser ran out of his Wilmington Island salon with a gun.

Master stylist and colorist John Partain saw two men run by his business, The Salon at Wilmington, at the Kroger Island Center on Johnny Mercer Boulevard, about 3:30 p.m. Thursday.

"These guys were flying," Partain said. "Then I heard the lady holler ‘They got my purse! They got my purse!’"

The victim, an 81-year-old woman, was attacked in the parking lot of the shopping center.

Partain, 57, who served in the Army before he became a hairdresser, ran to the back of the store and grabbed his gun, a Walther PPK. He said he keeps it there in case his business is robbed.

"I remember (Partain) pushing me up against the washing machine, "as he grabbed the weapon and barreled out the back door, said Lucas Muncie, an assistant at the salon.

Partain watched the two men flee along the fence behind the shopping center. He yelled at them several times to stop.

The man with the purse jumped over the fence into a residential neighborhood and escaped, Partain said. The other didn’t make it over the fence, and continued to run along a drainage ditch in front of the fence.

Partain said he fired the gun into the dirt near the fence to try to stop him, but the man kept running. He fired again, but the man still didn’t stop.

"I wasn’t trying to hit him. I wouldn’t shoot him in the back. He was unarmed," Partain said.

He chased the man around the fence and down part of Penn Waller Road.

"Finally, he was out of gas," Partain said.

The man tried to hide in some bushes, but Partain ordered him down on the ground and kept him there until police arrived.

Chatham County officers arrived and arrested the man, identified as Shannon Deshawn Johnson in the police report, and charged him with robbery by snatching. Johnson, 21, of Miami, admitted to running from the scene, but denied involvement in the robbery, according to the report.

During the arrest, police found Johnson in possession of a small bag of cocaine, according to the report. Also charged with possession of a controlled substance.

The officers also took Partain’s gun, in case it’s needed for evidence.

Partain used to own a salon in Atlanta called Mad Dog John’s. He recently decided to move back to the Savannah area, where he grew up, but chose the tamer name The Salon for his new business.

Hairdressers in the salon Friday had mixed reaction to the incident. Some said they didn’t approve of Partain’s use of the firearm. Others, like customer Debbie Crawford of Tybee Island, said it’s just John being John.

"It seems to be in character for him," she said.

So what happened? Did John Partain get in trouble for discharging his firearm in a quasi-public area? Hardly. Here’s a follow-up report from the Web site of his business, The Salon at Wilmington:

“In an awards ceremony Feb. 28 Chatham County Police Chief Tom C. Sprague awarded John Partain, owner of The Salon at Wilmington, a Citizen's Award. Partain was honored for coming to the aid of a frail elderly widow, with total disregard for his personal safety, by chasing one of two suspected purse snatchers in the Kroger Islands Center. He caught and held one of the suspects until police came and made the arrest. Then he comforted the 80-year-old victim and assured her safe return home. The assailant pled guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison.”