Fresno Barber Testifies: 'When They Hold Their Waistbands, It Means I Have a Gun'

Dalia Duenas was mid-fade on a client's head when two strangers walked in, went straight for her chair, and asked the question that ends in gunfire on the streets: 'Where you from, cuz?'

She never saw a gun. She never saw her client, 18-year-old Kobe Chantharangsy, pull a trigger. But when the shooting stopped, a father of two lay dying, and Duenas was certain of one thing: the bullets had come from underneath the barber's cape she'd just draped over him.

What Happened

The shooting tore through Los Viejones Barbershop near Belmont and Van Ness avenues on April 19, 2025, the day before Easter. The shop was where Jampier Quintero was waiting with two of his children and two friends for holiday haircuts.

This week, Duenas took the stand at Chantharangsy's preliminary hearing and walked jurors through the minutes before the chaos. She testified that two unidentified men in their twenties walked into the shop before the shooting and went straight to her client. She said the men asked Chantharangsy where he was from, and that the way they held their waistbands made her believe they were armed.

Her read on that gesture was blunt. 'When they hold their waistbands, it means 'I have a gun,' and when they asked him where he was from, they already knew,' Duenas said.

According to her testimony, tension had already been building. 'He said he had had an altercation with that guy,' Duenas testified. 'I told him not to do anything in my workplace.' She said Chantharangsy then whispered to a friend who had driven him to the barbershop that the rival was from the Lewis Street gang, and that he may have had something to do with the death of Chantharangsy's cousin.

Then it happened fast. Duenas said she felt her client's body tense, and moments later, chaos. Duenas testified that while she did not see her client holding a gun, he must have pulled the trigger from under his cape, shooting at the rival gang member sitting next to him.

The violence didn't stop there. Duenas testified that one of the two strangers who had approached Chantharangsy fired back into the barbershop as he fled the scene. She said she ran to a back room once the gunfire started, and that she had omitted the returning gunfire from earlier interviews because she was in shock at the time. Under cross-examination, prosecutor Ismail Aliyev pressed her on the gap; she said she was in shock and didn't remember everything until later.

She also testified that she had never before seen anyone die in front of her. When the shooting stopped, the barbershop floor was covered with blood, and Duenas and another customer applied pressure to the wounded as they waited for help.

Surveillance video introduced at the same hearing added a gutting detail: as people fled, Quintero is seen stopping between two cars and holding up his hands as if imploring the gunman not to shoot. Chantharangsy didn't listen. He fired his 10 mm pistol at Quintero, killing him, said prosecutor Ismail Aliyev.

Quintero, a father who shielded his children from the bullets, according to his wife, Gabriela Lopez, who said, 'Until his last moment, he was the protector,' wasn't the intended target. Why Chantharangsy shot Quintero is unclear. He wasn't a gang member and didn't know the defendant.

Chantharangsy is now charged with one count of murder and three counts of attempted murder in connection with the shooting, plus a gang-related murder enhancement and for using a gun. This is a preliminary hearing, not a full trial, a proceeding where a judge decides if there's enough evidence to send the case to trial. A codefendant, Adrian Echeverria, is charged separately as an accessory for allegedly driving the getaway car.

Why It Matters

This case reframes the industry's worst fear: not just that a shop can be caught in someone else's crossfire, but that the danger can be sitting in the chair itself, hidden by the one piece of equipment every barber puts on every client without a second thought, the cape.

Duenas's testimony matters because it shows how little control a barber has in that split second. She read the warning signs, the waistband gesture, the pointed question, her own client's tension, and still had no way to stop what came next. That's not a failure of judgment. It's the reality of standing over a client with scissors in hand when a threat walks through the door.

Industry Impact

Barbershops occupy a strange space in public safety: open storefronts, cash-adjacent, high foot traffic, and, in some neighborhoods, a known neutral or hangout spot that can attract exactly the wrong kind of attention. This isn't the first time a California barbershop has become the scene of gang-related gunfire from inside a barber's chair, and it won't be the last conversation shop owners have about who they let sit, and where.

For insurers, landlords, and shop owners, incidents like this one raise hard questions about liability, security cameras, and whether staff have any real protocol for reading escalating tension before it turns violent.

Lessons for Barbers

1. Know the body language, even if you can't act on it.
Duenas recognized the waistband gesture as a threat indicator in real time. Barbers spend hours facing the door and reading customers, that instinct is worth trusting and worth building into shop culture, even if it only buys you seconds.

2. Have an actual exit plan, not just an instinct to run.
When the gunfire started, staff scattered toward a back room. A shop with a rehearsed, quick path to a lockable back area, not just a hope that people will figure it out, gives everyone a better chance.

3. Understand your state's workplace violence rules.
California shop owners should already be aware of Senate Bill 553, which requires employers to establish a Workplace Violence Prevention Plan, document incidents of workplace violence, and train employees on how to identify workplace violence hazards as of July 1, 2024. A barbershop open to the public with even a couple of employees falls squarely under this law, and a written plan is not just paperwork, it forces owners to think through exactly this scenario before it happens.

4. Expect memory gaps after trauma, and don't let that undermine your credibility.
Duenas openly told the court she'd left out details in earlier interviews because she was in shock. That's a normal trauma response, not dishonesty, but it's also a reason to document what you witnessed as soon as you safely can, even in fragments, rather than waiting to reconstruct the full picture from memory alone.

5. Train on de-escalation and stop-the-bleed basics.
Duenas and a customer applying pressure to gunshot wounds while waiting for paramedics likely helped someone survive. Basic first-aid and stop-the-bleed training costs a shop very little and can matter enormously in the exact chaos this case describes.

Related Reading

Barbers and owners looking to build an actual written safety plan can start with Cal/OSHA's workplace violence prevention guidance if operating in California, or general OSHA workplace violence resources nationally, both of which cover recognizing hazards, training staff, and documenting incidents before something like this happens in your own chair.

The preliminary hearing in Fresno continues, and this newsroom will follow the case as it moves toward trial.