A shoplifter in Indiana working in tandem with children ran over a store employee who followed her onto the parking lot of a Menards in west St. Louis County on Wednesday night, critically injuring the worker, police say.
The injured worker, a 49-year-old woman, was hospitalized with a head injury Thursday morning. She was in critical but stable condition after being struck and thrown off the vehicle, Sgt. Benjamin Granda of the St. Louis County Police Department said.
The attack happened about 8 PM Wednesday at the Menards at 14161 Manchester Road, which is near Ballwin but in unincorporated St. Louis County. “This is awful,” Granda said, “not only for the victim whose life has been changed, but also for these children who were a witness or a part of these crimes.”
The shoplifter, a woman, also saw a man in a parked car taking a photograph of her vehicle; she confronted him, grabbing the phone from his hand and injuring his face, police said. She then got into the getaway car and “accelerated it toward a female employee” on the parking lot, hitting her, Granda added. The shoplifter and five children she brought with her into the store got away. She is described as… St. Louis Post-Dispatch