Armed thug tried to rob salon, but brave off-duty cop getting hair done opened fire on crook

A heroic off-duty cop getting her hair done at a Brooklyn beauty salon got into a shootout Saturday night with an armed thug who burst into the shop, striking him at least once, police said.

Officer Feris Jones, who works in an NYPD crime lab in Jamaica, Queens, was a customer at Sabine's Hallway on Franklin Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant around 6:30 p.m. when the thug rushed into the business and demanded cash, police said.

Jones, 50, showing nerves of steel, immediately confronted the bandit, identified herself as a cop and ordered the man to drop his weapon.

Instead, the callous crook began blasting away, firing at least three times, but missing Jones, sources said.

Undaunted, Jones bravely returned fire, shooting twice and hitting the punk at least once, sources said. The injured man fled.

Cops later followed a trail of blood from the salon to the nearby Lafayette Gardens housing project. A search of the building came up empty and there were no arrests last night.

No one in the salon was injured.

Jones "was calm and just wanted to make sure no one was hit by the perp," a source said.

Police were trying to determine whether a woman who asked about prices just before the robbery and then held the door open for the robber was an accomplice.

The door is usually locked and customers have to be let in.

Neighbors in Jones' Flatlands apartment building said her fearlessness is well known.

Years ago, she held down and arrested a crazed man trying to set fire to the building.

"She's always been brave," said one neighbor, who declined to give his name. "I feel good living across from her."

Neighbors of the salon said crime has been on an upswing in the area.

"I begged the cops to have more of a presence here," said Joseph Adewumi, 36, who owns a lounge across the street. "Too many businesses have been robbed and people are fed up."

Jones was treated and released from Kings County Hospital. "Her hair looked fine to me," a police source said of Jones' coif, post-shootout