Volume Beauty Supply

The owner of Volume Beauty Supply faces weapons charges after one of his employees accidentally shot another in the chest with a gun in the store Friday night.

(Cory Shaffer, Northeast Ohio Media Group)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- One of three men hired to protect an East Side beauty shop was hospitalized Friday night after another employee accidentally shot him in the chest, police said.

The man who hired them also faces weapons charges.

Ferris Bryant, 18, is charged with felonious assault and Amer Muntaser faces weapons charges after Bryant accidentally shot a man in the chest, according to police. An investigation uncovered five weapons - one stolen, one missing and one with a scratched-off serial number.

Muntaser hired Bryant, Karon Sims, 20, and Jeffery Gause, 18, to perform various tasks around Volume Beauty Supply overnight, according to a police report.

Muntaser locks the men in the store overnight just in case someone breaks in. But he does not give the men keys to get out "because Muntaser does not trust them," the report said.

His concerns proved justified about 11:55 p.m. Friday, police said.

The three men told police they were playing video games in the store when they came across Muntaser's five guns: two .40-caliber Smith & Wesson handguns, a .40-cailber Sig Sauer, a .45-caliber Glock 37 and an IntraTec 9MM, according to the police report.

Bryant picked up one of the guns, and it fired. Sims suffered a gunshot wound in his chest.

The panicked men dialed 9-1-1.

Paramedics rushed Sims to MetroHealth Medical Center. He was treated for a gunshot wound to his right midsection, the report said. He was not listed as a patient there Monday afternoon, according to a hospital spokesman.

When police showed up, Muntaser agreed to let them search his business, his attorney said in court Monday. Police located the weapons he kept in the store.

When asked, Muntaser said he owned all of the guns legally. But police said the Glock 37 9MM was reported stolen from Olivet Avenue on Dec. 4, and the Smith & Wesson SW40VE was reported lost from a Green Road address in Jan. 8. The Tec-9's serial number was scratched off.

Police arrested Muntaser on possession of a stolen firearm and receiving stolen property.

Both he and Bryant appeared in court Monday. Muntaser was given $10,000 bond, and Bryant is being held on $75,000 bond.

Muntaser, of Westlake, is also in the middle of criminal proceedings on felony possession of a dangerous ordinance. He is accused of selling fireworks illegally out of his car in the parking lot of his store on July 3.