5 Killed By Gunman At City Council Meeting Near St. Louis
By anniepa
@anniepa (27955)
United States
February 7, 2008 9:44pm CST
This happened at 7 PM central time tonight in Kirkwood, MO, a suburb of St. Louis. The link and the story appear below but the latest news is that there were 5 killed plus the shooter, Cookie Thorton. The dead include the mayor, two police officers and two council members. It seems it's not even safe to attend a council meeting in a small town these days.
http://www.ksdk.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=139898&iref=topnews
The shooting happened at 7 p.m. just before the city council was to begin debating zoning issues.
Witnesses tell NewsChannel 5, a man identified as Charles "Cookie" Thorton, entered the city hall screaming "All we want is justice."
Thornton then brandished a weapon and tried to shoot City Attorney John Hessel. Hessel threw up chairs to defend himself.
Thornton then went around a desk and shot Mayor
Mike Swoboda and several council members and two Kirkwood police officers.
NewsChannel 5 has confirmed that both officers were killed.
Witness say Thorton then ran out of the room with several other people.
More Kirkwood police officers confronted Thornton and shot him. Thornton was killed.
NewsChannel 5's Casey Nolan is reporting that two people have been taken to St. John's Mercy Medical Center. It is not known who these two people are, or what their conditions might be.
My heart goes out to the victims' families.
Annie
1 person likes this
2 responses
@Thoroughrob (11742)
• United States
8 Feb 08
It really would be interesting to know, what could have been so bad to set that off. How did he get the weapon in the building in the first place. Most places have high security. I feel so sorry for the victim's family also.
1 person likes this
@lightningMD (5931)
• United States
8 Feb 08
This is so sad. I can not figure out why people do these kind of things. I am keeping these families and the whole town in my prayers.
