[UPDATED] St. Louis Homicide No. 2: Man Shot to Death Over Theft of Sweets

KennethPayne1.jpeg
Kenneth Payne, 33, faces murder charges
Updated Sunday at 10:46 am with media links and a police spokesperson's correction to the original incident report.

Prosecutors have charged Kenneth Payne, a 33-year-old from the 3400 block of Montana, with the South City shooting Thursday night that left one man dead after an argument.

That argument was about the shoplifting of sweets. According to the online probable cause statement, the sweets were two candy bars; the Post-Dispatch is now reporting the item was a bag of Chips Ahoy! cookies. Either way, a man is dead. Over sweets.

It happened at Sam's Beauty Supply on the 3900 block of South Grand, and was caught on surveillance tape, according to the PC statement.

Thursday evening at around 7 pm, police say, a 30-year-old white male employee of the business and his white male friend, age 22, were inside Sam's Beauty Supply. 
They spied a customer -- described by police as a 28-year-old black female -- trying to steal some sweets. The shoplifter's had a boyfriend with her -- Kenneth Payne, authorities believe. Payne allegedly started arguing with the men from the store. This argument spilled outside.

Payne started to walk away from the ruckus, then pulled a stainless steel revolver from his waistband and fired.  He hit the store employee in the abdomen and hand, and hit the 22-year-old male in the chest -- a fatal shot.

By the time the cops arrived, the 22-year-old was unconscious. He was pronounced dead at the scene. His name has not been officially released as of Sunday morning because police have not yet notified his next-of-kin, but the PD has identified him as Anan Abdallah, a Palestinian from Jerusalem.

As for Payne, he's been arrested and charged with murder, assault and armed criminal action.

His girlfriend was arrested but as of Friday had not been charged.
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tagurit
tagurit

I heard over the weekend that this incident wasn't about candy but about bath salts the store may have been selling under the counter.  This is a common problem with the middle-eastern and asian owned businesses on South Grand and in S. city.  Brings in the wrong kinds of people.  Case in point.

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