Arrow Strikes St. Louis Granny As She Sits Inside Home Eating Donuts

If you weren't watching the local news last night, you missed a truly remarkable moment in St. Louis television history. Never before -- nor never again -- will all three* local news stations converge for a story as outlandish as that of 80-year-old Margaret Shofner.

Shofner was babysitting her great-grandchild yesterday morning in St. John when an arrow came crashing through the kitchen window and lodged into her face, just above her lip. Shofner was eating a donut (chocolate) at the time and  didn't seek medical treatment for a full hour -- until her grandson returned home.

"I pulled it (the arrow) out and laid it on the table. That's when I realized what it was," says Shofner, who retold her story to news crews yesterday while seated in her living room recliner.

All three stations (KTVI, KMOV and KSDK) ran with the story at the top of their 10 p.m. newscasts, with their interviews of Shofner almost perfectly synced. You could literally switch back and forth between the channels and follow the entire story.

Police in the north-county suburb of St. John arrested nearby resident Robert Joiner, 26, charging him with second-degree assault and armed criminal action. Joiner was practicing archery with a compound bow in his backyard when the arrow ricocheted off a hay bale and went flying into his neighbor's window.

Joiner was oblivious to what happened and was still in his backyard shooting arrows an hour after the incident when police showed up to inform him of what occurred. Last night Joiner posted bail on a $25,000 bond.

*Yes, technically there are five St. Louis stations with local newscasts, but KPLR and KDNL's stories originate from KTVI and KSDK, respectively.