Pretty ugly fight
Fans and foes swirl at shuttered beauty shop
The doors remained closed Tuesday at a Brooklyn nail salon at the center of an ugly feud.
Flyers posted on the silver metal grate outside the 888 Happy Red Apple Nails salon reflected the lingering tensions from a wild melee inside the business last Friday.
And while a local Assembly member investigated the licenses of the local business, loyal customers defended the Asian-American owners against the vitriol from their largely African-American customers.
“This is ridiculous,” said Lotoya Horton, 37, as her stepmother protested nearby against the store. “Everybody wants to be an activist now.”
Stepmom Carol Branch, 47, placed brooms outside the salon as her protest statement against the brawl in which a broomstick-wielding worker pounded away on a black grandmother — the recipient of a botched $5 eyebrow trim that led to the fight.
“I want justice,” Branch snapped at Horton.
Handwritten signs outside the store called for its permanent shuttering.
“They wicked!” read one handwritten poster taped to the front of the business. “They beat two (ladies) with stick and one…got acetone in her face! Can you believe it!”
Another sign urged locals to sign a petition to shut down the business as soon as possible. Owner Huiyue Zheng told the Daily News that she was “not sure” about whether the salon would reopen next week. The free-for-all inside the shop was captured on a widely-viewed video.
“We all saw that video and it speaks for itself,” said Assemblywoman Diana Richardson. “An apology still hasn’t been rendered by the business owner.”
Though the bad beauty treatment sparked a demonstration by mostly black protesters, others offered support for Zheng and her husband Michael Lin.
Teema Shellow, 37, came to the shop Tuesday from the Bronx only to find the doors closed. She’s a 10-year customer of the shop, and found herself caught in the middle of the angry back-and-forth.
“I used to live down the block,” she explained, almost in tears. “Everybody is bashing me because I come here.”
Some local protesters advised Shellow to spend her money at a black-owned business — and she noted there were no such nail salons in the neighborhood.
“That’s what gets me upset,” she said. “Where are the black salons?”
She did call on owner Lin to fire the employees involved in the attack involving Thelma Medley, a longtime customer who just wanted a $5 refund. The video showed Medley under attack by the store worker swinging a broken broomstick.