Cops: Man, 61, shot during attempted robbery of West Philadelphia barbershop

Two men who stuck up a West Philadelphia barbershop Wednesday night fled empty-handed but left a 61-year-old employee of the shop hospitalized with two gunshot wounds, police said.

Cops said the victim and the barbershop owner were in a back room of Eddie's Barbershop, at 60th and Race streets, shortly before 8 p.m. when two men – at least one of whom wielded a handgun – burst in and announced a robbery.

The employee picked up a lamp and was able to hit one of the robbers with it, said Chief Inspector Scott Small, but the gunman let off two at the man, wounding him in the left side of his abdomen and his left ear.

The robbers, both described men between 20 and 25 years old and about 6 feet tall, one wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and the other wearing a blue one, fled with nothing, Small said. They were last seen running northbound on 60th Street.

Small said when police arrived at the scene, they found the floor stained with the victim's blood and two spent shell casings inside the shop. They rushed the victim to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was listed in stable condition around 9 p.m., and took the owner of the shop to the Southwest Detective Division to give a statement.

"The 61-year-old victim is very lucky, being shot in the ear and stable," Small said.

Investigators didn't find any private surveillance cameras in the shop or the immediate area, Small said. No arrests had been made around 9 p.m. Wednesday.