Police: Teen trying to stop assault shoots both parents

ST. LOUIS -- A 13-year-old boy was apparently trying to stop his father from strangling his mother when he shot both parents in their St. Louis home, police said.

The shooting happened around 10 a.m. Wednesday in St. Louis' Academy neighborhood, television station KMOV reported. St. Louis Metropolitan Police officers called to the home found a 50-year-old man shot in his lower body and a 47-year-old woman shot in the torso.

The woman told officers her husband started choking her during an argument, leading her son to fire several shots at his father and inadvertently also shooting her, police said.

The father was taken to a hospital in critical condition, and the mother was hospitalized in stable condition, police said.

The boy was arrested and his case sent to juvenile court.