Montco man charged with murder following a dispute outside his Hatboro salon

A Hatboro business owner has been charged with first-degree murder after allegedly shooting the man who lived above his hair salon, the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office announced Sunday. The two men had had repeated arguments, according to police.

Around 6 p.m. Saturday, Hatboro police responded to a report of a disturbance at 226 N. York Rd. and found 37-year-old Stephen Strassburg suffering from multiple gunshot wounds in the parking lot of Razor Reese’s Salon. Strassburg was transported to Jefferson Abington Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

According to the affidavit of probable cause for Maurice Byrd’s arrest, the 41-year-old salon owner and Horsham resident was on the phone with 911 reporting Strassburg for “verbally assault[ing]” him when Byrd fired seven shots. Before the shots were fired, Strassburg could be heard saying “What are you going to do, you going to shoot me N-word?” according to the police report’s description of the 911 dispatch recording.

Byrd stayed on the scene and on the line with 911 until police arrived. A 9mm Smith & Wesson, semiautomatic handgun was found owned by Byrd was recovered at the scene, according to the affidavit. According to the District Attorney’s Office news release, Byrd has a valid permit to carry a firearm, and Strassburg did not have a weapon at the time of the shooting.

Police had responded to three verbal disputes between Byrd and Strassburg since December 2022, according to the affidavit, and had issued warnings to the men to avoid contact with each other.

Two witnesses described watching an altercation unfold between Byrd and Strassburg on Saturday. A couple who had been sitting on their second-floor balcony across the parking lot from Razor Reese’s observed Byrd standing outside his salon when Strassburg confronted him, calling him “a drug dealer,” according to the affidavit. One witness “stated this male then went around the corner out of view but came back a short time later calling Maurice a ‘N-word’ and observed this male ‘charge at Maurice,’” the report states. The other witness, who said she believed Strassburg had instigated the altercation, said the two men were “attempting to land punches” before gunshots were fired.

According to the police affidavit, five shots were fired, then, after a pause, two more. “Byrd then says ‘I just had to shoot him.’ The dispatcher asks ‘did you hit him’ to which Byrd responds ‘yes I did,’” the affidavit says.

According to the criminal complaint, Byrd provided the following statement to Montgomery County detectives and Hatboro police Saturday night:

Byrd said he and Strassburg had repeated arguments. On Saturday, he said, he was smoking a cigarette outside of his business when Strassburg saw him and yelled “dirty N-word.” Byrd then went inside to call 911 on his cell phone; Strassburg opened the door to the business and repeated the slur.

Byrd was on the phone with 911 when he went back outside, where Strassburg started moving toward him. “Byrd began to retreat further into the parking lot, when Strassburg grabbed Byrd’s shirt,” the affidavit reads. “Byrd retrieved his handgun from the front of his waistband, to which Strassburg responded, ‘What you gonna do, shoot me N-word?’ as Stephen pulled his arm back like he was going to punch Byrd.”

That’s when Byrd started shooting.

Byrd was charged Sunday with first- and third-degree murder, and possessing an instrument of crime. He was awaiting arraignment at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility.

Court records show that Strassburg had previously been incarcerated on multiple occasions between 2007 and 2017 after arrests for driving under the influence, as well as other charges including driving with a suspended license, possession of drug paraphernalia, harassment, and simple assault. He pleaded guilty to three DUIs over six years.

In his second DUI, in 2009, he allegedly drove through an intersection of County Line Road in New Britain Township at 61 mph, killing a 50-year-old Philadelphia man and seriously injuring another man, according to an article from the Pottstown Mercury.

Staff writer Jeremy Roebuck contributed to this article.