KIRKWOOD — In the moments after he was shot outside City Hall, Kirkwood Police Sgt. William Biggs sounded a distress alarm on his walkie talkie, signaling what was to be the start of a shooting rampage.

According to a half dozen eyewitness accounts inside City Hall chambers as well as police sources, the events in and around Kirkwood's City Hall unfolded in less than five minutes. It started when Charles "Cookie" Thornton apparently got out of his car parked on West Madison Avenue and shot Biggs as he walked through a nearby parking lot.

Thornton then stripped Biggs of his gun and headed back across the street to Kirkwood City Hall. He entered through the back parking lot entrance and climbed the stairs to the council chambers on an upper floor. Biggs, wounded and dying, switched on the distress alarm.

His colleagues at the police department would not have time to respond before they heard gunshots from inside City Hall.

Between 30 and 40 people were gathered inside the council chambers for a regular meeting that had convened minutes earlier, said attendee Alan Hopefl.

Thornton, wearing a thigh-length coat, a black driving cap and carrying a 3-by-4-foot poster, entered the rear of the room and turned right, catching the attention of attorney Will Joyce, who was seated in the back row. Thornton then headed up the side aisle — moving fast, practically skipping — toward Police Officer Tom Ballman, said Mark O'Neal of Webster Groves, seated in the middle of the audience.

"The police officer has this look on his face. It's a look like he's seen this before and is thinking, 'Oh man, not this again,'" O'Neal said.

As Thornton approached Ballman, he ordered him to put his hands up and then dropped the white protest sign.

"He was holding it like a shield, and the sign drops down and he's holding two guns ready to shoot," O'Neal said. "The big gun came up and 'boom' the police officer was shot. The officer didn't even have a chance to raise up his arms. He was gone instantly."

Thornton turned left and began crossing in front of the audience and took fatal aim at Public Works Director Kenneth Yost who was sitting in the front row.

"I had to lay there and listen to the man die," said Post-Dispatch correspondent Janet McNichols, who was seated behind Yost.

Suburban Journals reporter Todd Smith, sitting in the front of the audience on the other side of the room, watched Thornton make his way toward him and Councilwoman Connie Karr, who was sitting at the dais in front of him.

"I don't know if he was going for me or Connie Karr, or both," said Smith, who was shot in the hand. Karr was shot and killed.

As the shooting continued, those in the audience rushed toward the main exit.

Thornton then headed down the dais, killing Councilman Michael Lynch and then shooting Mayor Mike Swoboda in the face as he attempted to bolt from his seat. Crouched next to him under the dais was City Attorney John Hessel, who said he realized if he did not run he was going to die.

Hessel fled to the rear of the council chambers as Thornton chased him with both guns drawn. Police rushed into the chambers as Hessel said he threw chairs and dodged around the room to keep the killer at bay.

Thornton did not shoot, and Hessel made it through a side exit door after jumping over the body of Yost. He watched Thornton stumble over the body.

He heard a hail of bullets as he ran down the stairs — presumably the police shots that killed Thornton.

Only when the shooting stopped did police find their colleague, Biggs, in the parking lot.

KAVITA KUMAR, HEATHER RATCLIFFE AND STEVE GIEGERICH OF THE POST-DISPATCH CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT.

Nancy.Cambria@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8238