Three Terrorize Fashionable Beauty Salon : Robbery: Suspects hold patrons at gunpoint and take diamond rings. Three men are arrested.

Three men staged a daring daylight robbery at a beauty salon in the fashionable Larchmont district Friday, terrorizing at gunpoint more than three dozen customers and employees before they were captured following a chase through a nearby neighborhood.

Witnesses said at least two of the men carried handguns, and that one wore a black mask. They marched the salon’s mostly older, wealthy patrons and employees to the back of the salon, then snatched the diamond rings off of the fingers of about 20 sobbing women, according to witnesses. They also emptied out the women’s purses.

The suspects were leaving the Salon De Melange at 500 N. Larchmont Blvd. in the mid-Wilshire area when Los Angeles police arrived around 10 a.m., authorities said. One man was arrested outside the salon, while two others were apprehended 10 blocks away after fleeing in a van.

There were no injuries reported, although several people were visibly shaken. One woman, her hair newly coiffed, lowered her head and muttered, “Oh, my God,” as she left the salon.

The suspects were identified as Lynn Brooks, 29, Glenn Baldwin, 29, and Floyd Nelson, 32, all from Los Angeles. They were booked on suspicion of robbery, according to police, who said two handguns were recovered. There was no estimate on the value of the stolen items recovered.

The robbery began about 9:40 a.m., according to witnesses. Zahira Fazilat, a makeup specialist, said the shop was filled with about 30 customers and 10 employees when the gunmen burst through the front door.

Fazilat, who was in a back room, frantically summoned police by telephone. “I heard strange noises and a voice ordering people to the floor,” Fazilat recalled. “A lot of the women were crying. . . . Others were in a state of shock.”

Aurora Dupitas, owner of the salon located on the edge of the popular Larchmont Village shopping area, said she saw the men approaching the door, but was afraid to stop them.

“I tried to lock the door, but it was too late,” Dupitas recalled. “They said, ‘Everyone get in the back and keep quiet!’ Then they made us all lie down on the floor.”

A manicurist named Vickie, who declined to give her last name, said the gunmen appeared nervous and were “not professional.” However, they were selective about what they snatched.

“When I saw them, I took this and put it in my mouth,” she said, pointing to her antique ring. “But they weren’t interested in that. . . . They were looking for expensive things.”

Customers and employees said the suspects quickly gathered the stolen items in a plastic garbage bag and ran when they heard the sound of a police helicopter circling overhead.

Two of the men tried to escape in a navy blue Dodge van after their partner was caught, police said.

The police helicopter and several patrol cars chased the van for about five minutes, until it slammed into a parked car in the 300 block of Citrus Avenue. Police said the two men then ran off in opposite directions.

A two-square-block area was sealed off as about 20 officers, including four police dogs, combed the usually quiet Larchmont neighborhood.

Patrick Normaly said his housekeeper saw one of the men running through his back yard. Normaly rushed outside and discovered that the getaway van had crashed into his 1979 Chevrolet Malibu. “I just canceled my collision coverage,” he said, shaking his head.

Cathy Peterson, who lives across the street, said the other suspect swept past her window and hurled himself over her back fence. “I thought he was a burglar,” Peterson said.

Police said one of the men was taken into custody after he was sniffed out by a police dog inside a building at 339 N. Highland Ave. The other was arrested nearby, police said.