“Eight hours after finding himself in the middle of a late-night robbery and gun battle in front of his business, Dexter Jones was back in his barbershop on Dixwell Avenue Tuesday greeting customers. ‘I opened up early to quell the rumors that I’m dead. A lot of people think I’m dead right now,’ said Jones early Tuesday afternoon, as friends kept coming by Dexter’s Unisex Barber Shop to check on him. Jones, 44, who grew up in New Haven and has run his shop for more than a dozen years without incident, was robbed at gunpoint at about 11 p.m. Monday outside the shop. His neighbors, Garfield and Desmond Mills, who run Wing Madness next door, saw what was happening, drew their own guns and ended up in a shootout with the robbers. ‘If it wasn’t for them, I think I would have lost my life last night,’ Jones said.” (12/03/08)