Nahson Shelton allegedly threatened employees of a beauty shop with a submachine gun after he bought a pop. Police said he was upset at being charged tax. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Darryl Holliday; Chicago Police Department

COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — A man armed with a submachine gun was arrested after he threatened employees at a West Side beauty store claiming “tax exempt” status Saturday, prosecutors and police said.

Nahshon Shelton, 36, of West Garfield Park, appeared in court Saturday sporting a look of disbelief as a judge read off comments from the police report in which he allegedly threatened employees and customers at Madison Grocery and Beauty Supply, 4017 W. Madison St.

According to police, customers in the store described an argument between Shelton and store employees over a tax charge of 22 cents on a bottle of pop Shelton had bought.

“I’m going to shoot you in the head three times,” Shelton said as he pulled an Intratec submachine gun out of a Gucci satchel and began yelling death threats in the store, police said. “Right now I’m going to smoke your a--! You’re not listening, I’m killing everyone in here.”

Officers arrived on the scene shortly after to find Shelton’s Gucci bag open on the counter as well as 15 bullets in the blue steel .22-caliber submachine gun — eight live rounds in one magazine, five in another and one in the chamber, according to court documents.

Video surveillance retrieved from the store shows Shelton walk in carrying the satchel, taking the gun out and pointing it at various people in the store, police said.

Shelton later announced to police officers that the tax charge was what set him off.

Because this "is my neighborhood, I’m tax exempt!” he told the officers from the back seat of a police vehicle, police said. “Man, you know what, I’ll keep it real. I had to put them in their place.”

Shelton was charged with five counts, including felony unlawful use of a weapon, before he was denied bail Saturday.