Kirkwood City Council shooting

Thornton parked his van on the side street near Kirkwood City Hall and saw Kirkwood Police Sgt. William Biggs, who was on duty but walking to pick up dinner nearby. In a parking lot across the side street from City Hall, Thornton confronted Biggs and shot him with a Smith & Wesson Model 29 .44 Magnum revolver, killing him instantly. Before Thornton fired, Biggs had hit a distress signal on his radio to summon additional police officers. Thornton took Biggs' Smith & Wesson .40-caliber handgun and went inside City Hall. There, in the city council chambers, the Pledge of Allegiance had just been recited and the mayor was starting the city council meeting with 30 people attending. Thornton entered the room quietly from the back with both of his weapons concealed but soon got close to his intended victims. He first fatally shot Kirkwood Police Officer Tom Ballman in the head and continued shooting other victims at close range while reportedly repeating the phrase "Shoot the mayor!" He fatally shot council members Connie Karr and Michael H.T. Lynch, and Public Works Director Ken Yost. He shot Mayor Mike Swoboda twice in the head and left him for dead. Witnesses reported about 15 gunshots. Ignoring the four other council members, Thornton chased City Attorney John Hessel, who slowed Thornton by throwing chairs at him until escaping from the room. All of this gunfire was audible at the Kirkwood police department building, located across a small parking lot from the rear entrance to city hall. Two Kirkwood police officers rushed to the council chambers. There, Thornton fired on them from behind a desk. The officers returned fire; Thornton, who still had rounds left, sustained two gunshot wounds to the neck and abdomen and died at the scene. Aftermath In total, Thornton killed five people and wounded two, reporter Todd Smith and Mayor Swoboda, who were taken to St. John's Mercy Medical Center, the latter in critical condition. The mayor had been shot in the lower jaw, with the bullet exiting from his cheek, and was also shot in the back of his head. He underwent surgery on February 7 and again on February 8, the latter surgery lasting three hours. Mayor Swoboda's condition was upgraded after a few days to "serious", and after two weeks to "satisfactory". Since then, he had begun eating soft food and talking. His family said that he had no memory of the shootings. He would need reconstructive surgery for his face; other long-term health effects were unknown. A reporter for the local Suburban Journals, Todd Smith, was shot in the hand but released from the hospital within 24 hours. ==Perpetrator==

Early background Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton (December 23, 1955 – February 7, 2008) was a lifelong resident of Meacham Park, an unincorporated predominantly African American community that bordered Kirkwood in St. Louis County, Missouri. In 1992, a ballot proposition appeared under which Kirkwood, an abutting, comparatively prosperous city with only a small percentage of African-American residents, would annex the low-income Meacham Park area. After spirited debate and campaigning, residents of both Meacham Park and Kirkwood approved the annexation. Upon annexation, the municipal codes of Kirkwood became the law for Meacham Park, which had previously lacked municipal codes due to its unincorporated status. During the 1990s, Thornton was active in a number of civic and charitable organizations in Kirkwood. He ran for Kirkwood City Council in 1994, unsuccessfully. Via eminent domain, part of the Meacham Park area was taken for a large commercial development in the late 1990s in a tax increment financing project. Thornton, who foresaw that his construction company would get contracts in this development, was a public proponent of it, in this respect opposing the views of some others in Meacham Park. Legal and financial troubles Thornton sought and received some work for his construction company during this commercial development. Family members and friends have said that he became resentful over having gotten less than he felt he had been promised. In 1999, Thornton filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging racial discrimination in the awarding of contracts he had wanted. In 1996, Thornton had begun receiving citations from Kirkwood for violations of city codes. In June 1998, he pleaded guilty to six violations; and agreed to a five-phase plan to bring his property and his paving business into conformance with city codes within two years. However, this plan was not fulfilled, and Thornton began to leave new tickets unpaid. By late 2001, Thornton had been cited many dozens more times by Kirkwood officials under municipal code enforcement actions for operating an unlicensed business from his home in a residentially-zoned incorporated area; illegal dumping; destruction of property; parking his construction company's equipment near his home; and for numerous other municipal code violations. Kirkwood said in a state court memorandum in 2003 that by May 2002, multiple trials in city and county courts had concluded with Thornton pleading guilty to, or being found guilty of, more than 100 of 114 charges. Charges were dropped, or Thornton was found not guilty, on at least a dozen other charges. Thornton said later in federal court, and at Kirkwood city council meetings, that he had received more than 150 tickets. Courts ordered that he pay nearly $20,000 in fines and court costs. Thornton filed for bankruptcy in December 1999. After several years of the lawsuits, he declined an offer from the city to let his fines remain unpaid in exchange for dropping his last lawsuit against the city and no longer disrupting council meetings. On June 1, 2006, the council considered resolutions to ban Thornton from attending or speaking at meetings. However, both were defeated; Kirkwood mayor Mike Swoboda stated then that, "We will act with integrity and continue to deal with him at these council proceedings. However we will not allow Mr. Thornton, or any other person, to disrupt these proceedings." On June 24, 2007, Thornton was charged with misdemeanor assault after a struggle outside PJ's Restaurant in Kirkwood. Thornton had been picketing outside the restaurant and began stomping the owner until subdued by bystanders. The criminal case was pending. On March 15, 2007, Thornton entered a motion with the court with the purpose of amending the January 18 suit in several ways, including adding a claim for $14 million in damages. On June 21, 2007, a federal judge denied the motion to amend the original federal lawsuit. Thereafter, only the remaining (original) suit, which sought but $350 in damages, was in contention. ==Reaction==

Gerald Thornton, one of Charles Thornton's brothers, told CNN that his brother Charles thought his "constitutional protections" were violated and that his act was the only option. In other interviews he said that "my brother went to war tonight with the government," that he could not resolve his problems through communication, and that "this was not a random rampage." Gerald Thornton himself served five years in Missouri prison for fatally stabbing a man in 1996. Charles Thornton left a one-line note on his bed, saying: "The truth will come out in the end" or "The truth will win out in the end." The note was considered to be a suicide note, indicating that Thornton may have intended to die in the shooting. Another brother, Arthur Thornton, said his family was "truly, truly sorry" for the shootings. The Meacham Park Neighborhood Association (MPNA) met the afternoon of February 8. In attendance were 100 people, including Thornton's mother, and a "procession of ministers" who spoke at the meeting. Many there spoke sympathetically of Thornton. Elder Harry Jones of Men and Women of Faith Ministries said "This is something that took place over time, and perhaps it could have been avoided. There always has been a great divide between Kirkwood and Meacham Park." The town of Kirkwood mourned on February 8, with flags at half-staff, and with prayer services and vigils being held throughout the day. A vigil was held across the street from city hall, with black fabric held over the entrance of it and a memorial of flowers, at 7 P.M. local time, about 24 hours after the shooting. Notes were left with the flowers, some addressing the deceased. Outside of the Kirkwood police department building various flowers and an American flag were laid in memoriam of the two officers killed during the shooting. In 2014, a one-hour animated documentary, "Elegy to Connie", was released, which focused on Thornton and the racial tensions in Kirkwood while memorializing Connie Karr, one of the council members killed in the shooting. The director, artist Sarah Paulsen, stated, "It [the film] came out of the desire to talk about the event, about somebody who was lost in it, and how that impacted the community, and what happened to the community afterward." ==See also==