A woman who tried to shoot a North Park stylist who gave her a haircut she didn’t like pleaded guilty Thursday to assault with a semiautomatic firearm.
Adrian Blanche Swain, 30, faces a maximum of 13 years in prison when she is sentenced Dec. 12.
Lennin Luna Lopez testified during a preliminary hearing in June that Swain came into the 619 Barbershop on 30th Street about 10 a.m. last Feb. 10.
The stylist said Swain wanted a short haircut because her hair was damaged and also asked him to add some “lines” on one side of her head.
Luna said Swain didn’t talk much during the haircut and mumbled some things he couldn’t understand.
After the 45-minute appointment, Swain paid Luna $20 and gave him a $20 tip, he testified.
“She seemed happy with the haircut,” Luna said through an interpreter.
The stylist said Swain returned to the barbershop about 20 to 30 minutes later, as he was preparing to cut another customer’s hair.
What caught Luna’s attention was the fact that Swain didn’t have any hair where he had cut it, he testified.
Luna said Swain pulled a gun out of her purse and said “Look what you did to me,” then pointed the weapon at him and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened.
Swain told him, “Do you think I’m kidding?” and pulled the trigger a second time, with the same result, Luna testified.
The defendant pulled the trigger a third time but the gun again didn’t fire, and Swain turned to walk out while putting her hand on the gun, as if to load it, Luna said.
“When she started to walk out, I knocked her down,” the witness testified.
Luna said he and others held Swain down and wrestled the gun away from her.
“She was yelling, ‘Shoot me in the head!”‘ Luna testified.
San Diego police Detective Andrew Tafoya testified that the semiautomatic gun had a full magazine of 10 rounds, but no round in the chamber. An open gun case with ammunition was found in Swain’s SUV, which was running with the keys in the ignition just outside the barbershop, he said.
Tafoya said Swain told him she had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
–City News Service
