Bellefontaine Neighbors: A 13-year-old suburban St Louis girl suspected of shooting and critically wounding a couple in their 70s at the beauty shop where they work surrendered to police and was being questioned.


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The shooting happened Tuesday afternoon at King's Beauty Supply in Bellefontaine Neighbors. According to Bellefontaine Neighbors police, the couple caught the girl and a friend trying to shoplift on Tuesday and kicked them out of the store.


They recovered the items believed to hair extensions and didn't report the incident. The girls returned later that day, though, and the couple called police, who found the girls in an adjacent parking lot. Officers detained one of the girls on a previous juvenile warrant and released the other, with the couple's approval, police said.


The girl who was released is suspected of returning later and shooting the couple. Police said a witness saw her enter the store and then emerge a short time later, running out with a revolver in her hand.


Police searched for the girl after the shooting, but their dogs lost her scent in a wooded area between the store and a residential area. Officers warned that she was considered armed and dangerous, despite her young age, before her surrender.


The teen, accompanied by family, surrendered at the police station late last morning, police Chief Jeremy Ihler said.


"I'm speechless that it was a 13-year-old girl with a handgun," Ihler said. Authorities haven't released the names of the victims. They are the parents of the store's owner and often work there even though they speak Korean and their English isn't great, authorities said.


"They're very forgiving people," Ihler said. "The phrase, 'No good deed goes unpunished' fits right here."