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All for a cigarette?!

St. Louis metro police say that a a 33-year-old man and a 52-year-old man were arguing over a cigarette last night, when the dispute escalated and turned violent.

The older man then allegedly broke a glass plate over the younger man's head.

And stabbed him.

Yikes.

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Screenshot via kmov.com

An officer talks to reporters after last night's shooting. Video below.

The most recent victim of gun violence in St. Louis is a four-year-old girl.

Police say the girl, hit by bullets last night, was not the intended target, but got caught up in gunfire from a drive-by shooting.

The incident took place last night around 7:30 p.m. on Louisiana Avenue in the city's Dutchtown neighborhood and police say that the young girl was shot in front of her mother.

Who was the suspect targeting?

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St. Louis County Police

Terrence Clark, suspect

DeWayne Whitehead, the owner of 3one4 Hair Gallery in north St. Louis county, says he does everything he can to keep his employees and customers safe -- but there's violence around him.

"What's going on outside is not what's going on inside," he tells Daily RFT. "We are doing our part."

But his business has made headlines over the last two days as a place of violence -- after his co-owner was shot and sent to the hospital where he remains in critical condition.

Whitehead, 35, says he doesn't know what to do to keep his business going in its current location.

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Police Chief Sam Dotson addressing media yesterday. Video below.

A bloody domestic dispute in St. Louis ended yesterday after police shot and killed Terrence Anderson, a 37-year-old city resident who earlier in the day allegedly killed his girlfriend -- and seriously injured her 15-year-old daughter.

The victim, Nichole Haynes, 32, was found dead on Tennessee Avenue at around 1:30 p.m., after police arrived at the scene in response to a shooting call, officials say. Anderson had reportedly shot Haynes, his girlfriend and her daughter, before fleeing on foot, police say. The mother was shot in the head and pronounced dead on the scene, and her daughter, who has a different father, sustained wounds to the hip and arm -- but survived.

A short while later police found the suspect and engaged in a tense pursuit that ultimately left Anderson dead.

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Courtesy of Inkley

Tami Inkley and her son Matthew at graduation.

On Friday, we reported on Tami Inkley's campaign to get justice for her eighteen-year-old son Matthew, who police say was shot point-blank in the head by his friend Kevin Beindorff last year. Since then, the St. Louis Circuit Court Attorney's office and the defense have signed a plea agreement, on view below, that would give the suspect seven years in prison.

"This is extremely hard," Inkley, a 50-year-old Ballwin resident, tells Daily RFT. "This is a wound that hasn't even healed, and this is ripping the Band-Aid right back off."

What are the terms of the deal, and why is the prosecution agreeing to seven years -- against the family's wishes?

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Dyanthany Proudie has a lengthy rap sheet of violent crime.

Nearly two months after a baby was found abandoned in a north county apartment building and the body of the child's mother was discovered days later in the trunk of a car, authorities finally have a suspect in custody.

Today St. Louis prosecutors charged 40-year-old Dyanthany Y. Proudie with the murder of Ebony Jackson and -- for the first time since her January 2nd death -- provided insight into how she may have spent her last few hours alive.

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Today, in awful, horrible news in St. Louis, we have for you the story of Nola Renee Miller, a 30-year-old mother, who allegedly snapped this week, stabbing her two young children -- before reportedly injuring herself.

Miraculously, all three survived.

What prompted such a violent act? A probable cause report, on view below, gives us a small glimpse at the details -- including the statement Miller's ten-year-old daughter made to officials after the incident.

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East St. Louis Police Department

Lecourtney Luckett

Soon after Lecourtney Luckett, 32, was released from prison -- completing a three-year sentence -- he went to the house of his ex-girlfriend, forced his way in, beat her and raped her. At least these are the charges that the East St. Louis Police Department have brought against Luckett, who found himself once again incarcerated on the very same day he was discharged.

This time, he may be behind bars for a lot more than three years.

"He's gonna be gone for a long time now," East St. Louis Police Chief Michael Floore tells Daily RFT. "It's just that simple."

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Police Chief Sam Dotson

The City of St. Louis has a new police chief -- and he says gun control will be one of his top priorities.

Officially sworn in on Thursday night, Police Chief Sam Dotson tells Daily RFT that the time has come to crack down on illegal handguns.

"As a society, we have to be serious about gun control," Dotson says.

And what does he think of the many pro-gun proposals floating around in the Missouri legislature?

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Here's a very unfortunate title for Missouri -- and it's one the state is officially holding on to for the third year in a row: No. 1 in "black homicide victimization." So says the Washington D.C-based research group Violence Policy Center, which released results this week of an annual study of homicide rates across the country.

What does it mean? The organization found that Missouri has the highest rate of black individuals falling victim to homicide at 33.86 deaths per 100,000 people.

"It's a shameful legacy," Josh Sugarmann, executive director, tells Daily RFT of these trends.

What's behind the devastating pattern?

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