Kirkwood Shooter "Went to War With the Government"

Every city council has local gadflies that seem to exist only to complain at council meetings. Rarely, though, do they pose an actual physical threat as this guy did:

KIRKWOOD, Mo. (AP) - Ten days after losing a federal lawsuit against this St. Louis suburb he insisted harassed him, a gunman stormed a council meeting and opened fire, killing two police officers and three city officials.

The gunman, identified as Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton, critically injured the city's mayor and wounded a reporter Thursday night before law enforcers fatally shot him.

"The only way that I can put into context that you might understand is that my brother went to war tonight with the people, the government that was putting torment and strife into his life," Thornton's brother, Gerald Thornton, told St. Louis' KMOV-TV. ...

Thornton was often a contentious presence at council meetings; he had twice been convicted of disorderly conduct for disrupting meetings in May 2006.

Most of his ire was directed at the mayor and Yost, McNichols said.

Thornton was well-known at City Hall, often making outrageous comments at public meetings, according to the weekly Webster-Kirkwood Times.

The newspaper quoted Swoboda as saying in June 2006 that Thornton's contentious remarks over the years created "one of the most embarrassing situations that I have experienced in my many years of public service."

Swoboda's comments came during a council meeting attended by Thornton two weeks after the man was forcibly removed from the chambers. The mayor said at the time that the council considered banning Thornton from future meetings but decided against it.

Thornton said during the meeting he had been issued more than 150 tickets.

This incident may change the way council meetings are run all over the country.

A Day of Mass Shootings

Thursday was a tough day for law enforcement and citizens alike. It started with a shooting in Los Angeles that killed 5 people including an LAPD SWAT officer, and ended with another mass shooting in Kirkwood, MO which killed two police officers and several citizens:

Six people, including two Kirkwood police officers and the gunman, were killed tonight at Kirkwood City Hall, a St. Louis County police spokeswoman said about 9:25 p.m. Two others were wounded.

Officer Tracy Panus said the man approached City Hall and shot one officer outside, then entered the building and shot and killed another officer.

"He shot three other people who were attending the council meeting. They also are deceased," she said. "One of the members attending the the board meeting was transported to an area hospital."

"He has shot seen people, killing five of them," Panus said. "Kirkwood police officer returned fire and killed him."

Dave Bundy, the editorial director for the Suburban Journals, said that one of the newspaper's reporters, Todd Smith, was injured in the attack.

"We don't know if it was a ricochet or what, but it hit him in the hand and shattered a bone or two," said Bundy, who spoke with Smith in the St. Johns' emergency room.

As medics were removing him from the scene, Bundy said, Smith called his editor and asked that a replacement be sent to city hall to continue reporting the story.

My hat's off to the reporter who had the presence of mind to make sure his paper had a reporter on the scene after he was carried away. My sympathies go out to the families of the brave officers and the others who perished that day.