Two dead in SD hair salon shooting

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Salon shooting
Police in Sioux Falls, S.D., responding to a car accident in the parking lot of the Cost Cutters hair salon found a woman, Amanda Connors, dead inside the car from a gunshot wound, Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012. Police say the gunman kidnapped his two kids from a babysitter at gunpoint, shot Connors, a Cost Cutters employee, and then holed up inside the salon. Officers later found the man inside dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
AP Photo/Dirk Lammers

By DIRK LAMMERS and KRISTI EATON, Associated Press

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Sioux Falls police say a 24-year-old salon manager was killed trying to protect an employee and her two children from an armed boyfriend who was upset about a domestic violence arrest and protection order.

Police Chief Doug Barthel says Amanda Connors was leaving the salon Tuesday afternoon when she saw 38-year-old Tyrone Leeon Smith in the parking lot. She phoned the store from her car to warn her employees, including Smith's girlfriend.

Barthel says Connors pulled her car up to the door as Smith stormed over. The two exchanged words then Smith shot Connors in the head.

Smith briefly tied up the employees then allowed them all to leave.

Police Capt. Greg Vande Kamp says armed officers stormed the salon and found Smith dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

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