Charles Lee THORNTON |
Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton (AP)
Charles
Thornton (Family Photo)
Charles Lee "Cookie"
Thornton protests outside Kirkwood City Attorney John Hessel's law
firm
in downtown St. Louis in 2005.
Police officers stood guard outside City Hall in Kirkwood, Mo. (Photo Tim
Parker/Reuters)
Five people were
fatally shot and two others wounded on
Thursday evening by a man who opened
fire as a City Council meeting began at
City Hall in Kirkwood, Mo., a generally
placid suburb of St. Louis. The gunman
was shot to death by police.
(Photo: Tom
Gannam/Associated Press)
Officers keep watch outside
City Hall in Kirkwood, Mo.,
where a gunman killed two
police officers and three
city officials before he was
fatally shot by police. The
gunman, Charles Lee Thornton,
was well-known for
disrupting council meetings
to protest what he called
persecution by city
officials. The acrimony
apparently stemmed from
parking citations he had
been issued.
(AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
Robert Cohen)
The last things Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton said to his family
were "To God be the glory" and that he loved them. Then Thornton
headed to Kirkwood City Hall, gunning down a police officer outside.
He then burst into the City Council meeting just after the Pledge of
Allegiance and opened fire, shooting another officer dead and
apparently targeting public officials he's sparred with in the past.
(Photo Robert Cohen - Post Dispatch)
Police
cars surround Kirkwood City
Hall after the shooting
rampage, which began when
the gunman burst into the
city council meeting and
opened fire, shouting "Shoot
the mayor!" Kirkwood, a St.
Louis suburb of about 27,000
people, is rarely the scene
of violence; its biggest
news this week had been the
installation of cameras to
catch drivers who run red
lights.
(gershphotopost.com)
Gerald Thornton, above, is a brother of Charles Lee Thornton, who
killed five people at a council meeting on Thursday night in
Kirkwood, Mo. (By Tom Gannam -- Associated
Press)
|
|
|
|