Larry Thomas, a 65-year-old Rock Hill, S.C., barber, was arrested and charged after authorities say he refused to cut a black man's hair and placed his hand on his gun when the customer asked about getting a shave.
"He said, 'I don't do black hair,' " the customer, Arthur Hill, of Fort Mill, S.C., told WCNC. "I asked him does he shave, can he shave me, and he said, 'I don't do black hair.' "
Hill told the news station that he'd never been to the barbershop but needed a shave before work because he works in the food industry and can't have facial hair.
"I said, 'Are you referring to African-American hair?' He said, 'Yeah,' and at the time, I noticed he already had his hand gripped on a .38 snub-nose chrome revolver," Hill said.
Hill said that he left the shop after seeing the gun and called the York County, S.C., Sheriff's Office.
"I was shocked. I was shocked for my life, because I'm thinking that could've been me laying on the floor dead," Hill told the news station. "He did not point it at me, but it was clear in [hind]sight like he meant business."
Thomas was arrested and charged with pointing and presenting firearms at a person, WCNC reports.
"I've had black people come in the door before, and I tell them I don't cut black hair," Thomas told the news station. Thomas said he didn't point the pistol at Hill and added that he keeps the gun at his shop for safety.
"I felt threatened," he said.
Thomas told the news station that while his case is pending, he's not allowed to have the gun in the shop.
Hill told the news station that he moved his family from New York to South Carolina for a better life, but that this incident has him reconsidering.
"I'm thinking about going back," he said. "I've been on this earth for 37 years and have never experienced something like this."
Read more at WCNC.