Barber beaten: 86-year-old attacked while giving haircut

Mike Gurspan/WKRG

Updated: Dec 23, 2021 / 06:35 PM CST

FLORALA, Ala. (WDHN) — A shocking video captured the moment an 86-year-old barber was attacked by a customer who suddenly became violent.

NewsNation affiliate WDHN News spoke exclusively with the victim at his business, Cobb’s Barber Shop, along Fifth Avenue in downtown Florala, along with an eyewitness who stepped in to help.

Monday afternoon, J.B. Clary was cutting a customer’s hair when the man suddenly jumped up and belted the elderly man. The blow knocked Clary to the floor of his shop. Clary said the incident was completely unprovoked.

“My back was turned to him,” Clary said. “He hit me while I was turned around. He got in the chair and told me how he wanted his hair cut. I touched him twice with the clippers and … he jumped out of the chair. I hardly cut his hair.”

Donna Battin works as a barber at the shop. She immediately pulled her .38 caliber handgun and told
the assailant in no uncertain terms that he was to leave.

“I said, ‘You need to get out of here before you get shot, boy.’ He left,” Battin said.

Florala native and longtime police Chief Sonny Bedsole says an incident like this might be more common in a large city, but the barbershop beating is an indication that things are changing in rural areas, too.

“I have to keep my emotions under control,” Bedsole said. “That gentleman has cut my hair ever since I’ve been able to sit in a barber’s chair.”

“He does everything for everybody,” Clary’s longtime friend Ed Harrison said. “He takes people to the doctor in Pensacola. He goes to the rest home and gives the old folks haircuts and doesn’t even charge.”

The suspect is Gary Wesley-Lambert of Mississippi. He’s being charged with third-degree assault, a misdemeanor in Alabama. He was transported to the Covington County Jail in Andalusia and given a $1,000 bond.