Arnold Redmond was waiting for a dice game to start when gunshots rang out.

He hugged the wall, then dropped to the floor. It was chaos in the east-side Detroit barbershop where police said 20 to 30 people were gambling in a small back room on Wednesday when someone outside started shooting in with an assault rifle.

Police said the violence may have stemmed from an ongoing feud between an individual and people at the gambling party.

Redmond, shot in the buttocks and left leg, bolted across 7 Mile Road and took cover in a party store.

“I was too scared to feel anything,” the 65-year-old West Bloomfield retiree said.

A person of interest in the shooting — which left three dead and six others wounded — was taken into custody on an unrelated felonious assault charge, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said Thursday. He said the man was wearing body armor at the time of his arrest.

The Free Press is not identifying the man, who is 31, because he has not yet been arraigned on charges.

A source familiar with the investigation said the man was stopped by police after attempting to force an officer, driving an unmarked vehicle, into oncoming traffic on Rochester Road in Rochester Hills. The man was pulled over in Rochester and arrested just after midnight Thursday, police said.

Craig called the shooting at Al’s Place Barber Shop “urban terrorism.”

Craig said that police received a 911 call about shots being fired at the business at 5:47 p.m. Wednesday, and by 5:49 p.m., police were at the scene.

He said the investigation has revealed that a man pulled up in a vehicle and started firing at a truck with a high-powered rifle. At some point, the rear door of the shop opened and the shooter began firing inside the barbershop.

According to a spokeswoman for the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office, the three men killed in the shooting were: Bryan Williams, 29, Joezell Williams, 61, and Kevin Perryman, 40. All died from multiple gunshot wounds, according to the office.

As police investigate the crime, relatives are mourning their loved ones.

Charzell Shields, Joezell Williams’ daughter, said her father was the patriarch of their family. She called the crime senseless and asked for anyone with information to step forward and go to the police.

“It don’t make sense for people to be losing their lives daily,” Shields said.

Local gathering spot

Redmond said he has frequented the barbershop for the last 30 years. He described the shop as a local gathering spot where regulars come to hang out, get a haircut, or play low-stakes dice games with $5 and $10 bills.

“It’s more like a family,” Redmond said of the clientele. “Everybody knows everybody.”

On Tuesday, the day before the shooting, Redmond had taken his three children to the barbershop for haircuts. The next day, he stopped by to say hello to a relative when all hell broke loose. Redmond was standing at a snack counter talking to a friend, waiting to play a so-called crumb game — a $5 and $10 dice game — when the gunshots rang out.

“I just heard a barrage of gunfire,” Redmond recalled. “I hugged the wall and dropped to the floor. After that, everybody was trying to get out the door.”

Redmond got out. He ran to a restaurant, but it was locked. He then tried a party store, whose owner let him inside.

“I’m angry that it happened. I’m angry that people are dead,” said Redmond, who doesn’t believe the shooting involved “the barbershop or any of the people associated with it.”

Outside the shop on Thursday, a handful of playing cards could be seen among some leaves near the front door, and broken window glass from a vehicle was in the alley.

Saifur Rahman, 19, said he was working at a fish and chicken shop across 7 Mile at the time of the shooting. He heard a series of shots that sounded like they came from an automatic weapon.

Three people — all male, one older and two younger — ran into his shop and locked the outer door. Rahman was behind an interior door and they began pounding on that, telling him to let them in. He thought he was being robbed.

“It was scary, you know,” he said.

More investigation

At one point, investigators were searching for two Chevrolet Impalas — one white, one black.

Hamtramck police impounded a silver Impala riddled with bullet holes, but it’s unclear whether it is connected to the barbershop shooting.

Craig said police are working with the U.S. Attorney’s Office to determine whether the man in custody could be in violation of federal laws for being in possession of body armor.

U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said the federal government is working with the Detroit Police Department to solve the barbershop shooting through the so-called Detroit One partnership.

She said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives went to the scene to collect and analyze ballistics evidence. ATF spokesman Donald Dawkins said roughly 20 shell casings were collected.

Despite this recent spate of violence — including the barbershop shooting and the fatal shooting of a Wayne State University law student — Craig said homicides are down.

According to police, there have been 289 criminal homicides so far this year, down from 331 during the same time period in 2012.

“The senseless loss of life and the horror for the surviving victims should outrage all of us,” McQuade said. “This shooting is both depressing and motivating. We need to do all we can to prevent this kind of violence.”

Crime Stoppers is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case. Call 800-SPEAKUP (800-773-2587).

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