Maurice Byrd, Jr., the owner of Razor Reese’s Salon and Spa in the Hatboro section of Upper Moreland Township who was acquitted in late March of murder charges, was given a lengthy profile today in the Trace, a non-profit gun violence news site.

According to their coverage, Byrd’s acquittal “places him among the small percentage of Black defendants who have been found not guilty for shooting white people in the name of self-defense, according to Urban Institute researchers who study racial bias in the criminal justice system.”

A self-described gun enthusiast and an Army veteran, Byrd said he supports “gun-violence reform 100%, but I believe you should be entitled to protect yourself with whatever item you need at that moment. We have a Second Amendment for a reason.”

The story continues:

Studies by the Urban Institute, the Duke Center for Firearms Law, and the American Bar Association, among others, have examined how racial disparities in self-defense cases have grown as more states adopted “stand your ground” laws. Pennsylvania is one of more than 30 states with such laws, which allow people to use deadly force to protect themselves and others, in many cases eliminating the obligation to retreat before firing.

Between 2005 and 2010, there were 1,210 homicides with a Black shooter and a white victim, and just 17 of them, slightly more than 1%, were ruled justified, Urban Institute researchers found. Of the 2,069 homicides where the shooter was white and the victim Black, 236 — or 11.4% — were ruled justified.

Razor Reese’s Salon and Spa is still closed, Byrd told the Trace, because of ongoing “tension in the community.”

He was interviewed by 6ABC earlier this month.

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