Man Arrested After Fatal Attack on St. Louis Religious Supply Store

(AP) Authorities say a woman who was killed at a suburban St. Louis religious supplies store Monday refused her attacker’s demands to “perform deviant sexual acts on him.”

Detectives say in a probable cause statement released Wednesday that the attacker forced the three women who were in the store into a back room at gunpoint and forced them to strip. They say he shot 53-year-old Jamie Schmidt in the head. The married mother of three died later at a hospital. He also assaulted the other two women.

St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch identified the suspect in Monday’s attack at the Catholic Supply store in Ballwin as 53-year-old Thomas Bruce, of Imperial, which is another St. Louis suburb.

Bruce is charged with 17 counts, including first-degree murder, sodomy or attempted sodomy and others.