Hero Hair Salon Cop Promoted to Detective

Off-duty officer gets a well-deserved promotion

When an armed robber burst into the Brooklyn beauty salon where off-duty police officer Feris Jones was getting her hair done, she had one urgent thought.

"We all have to get out of there in one piece."

Everyone did -- thanks to the 50-year-old police woman's amazing aim with a gun and coolness under pressure. 

And thanks to those qualities, she's now detective Jones, promoted in a City Hall ceremony Tuesday.

Smiling broadly and sporting a stylish swirl of braids, Feris was flanked by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg who hailed her as a hero.

Kelly praised Jones for " showing the steely courage" that defines the NYPD.  He also said eight million New Yorkers owe Jones and other officers "a debt of gratitude."

During the ceremony at City Hall, Mayor Michael Bloomberg called Jones "primed, prepared and precise."  He said she exemplifies "the bravery" of the NYPD.

This past weekend, Officer Feris was off-duty and inside a Bedford Stuyvesant beauty salon when an armed man ran in demanding money.

Feris identified herself to the suspect, 19-year-old Winston Cox, only to end up in a shootout with him -- where she shot Cox's pistol right out of his hand. Cox managed to escape the salon, but not before firing at -- and missing -- Officer Feris.

Asked if she was aiming for Cox's gun, she said "I was using my training, center mass, and that's where it landed."

He was later caught by police.

When asked how she stayed calm under fire she responded "that's just my personality."

Jones, who asked reporters to just "call her Jonesy" said she's always armed.  And she said she finally got her hair done -- three days late.

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