UPDATED 3:45 p.m.

The gunman who opened fire on a Kirkwood City Council meeting left a one-line note for his brother before the shootings, which said: "The Truth will win in the end."

Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton left the unsigned note on a bed in a bedroom of the house where they both were living, and Gerald Thornton found it after the shooting rampage Thursday night that left two police officers, three city officials and the gunman dead.

Charles Thornton stormed into the Kirkwood City Hall on Thursday night and used two weapons -- his own revolver and a cop's gun he took from an officer who was the first victim of the deadly rampage.

Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton carried a large-caliber revolver that he used to shoot and kill Kirkwood Police Sgt. William Biggs outside City Hall about 7 p.m. Thursday. Then, he grabbed Biggs' .40-caliber handgun and walked into the council chambers with both guns.

Within minutes, he had killed five people -- Biggs, Police Officer Tom Ballman, Councilwoman Connie Karr, Councilman Mike Lynch and Public Works Director Kenneth Yost -- before Kirkwood officers shot and killed Thornton.

Neither slain officer had had time to draw his weapon to fight back, police say.

Kirkwood Mayor Mike Swoboda was shot and underwent surgery Friday at St. John's Mercy Medical Center, where he was in critical condition this afternoon. A hospital spokesman said the mayor has been in critical condition since he arrived at the hospital. Another victim, Suburban Journals newspaper reporter Todd Smith, was in satisfactory condition with a gunshot wound to the hand.

In a brief news conference this morning, Deputy Mayor Tim Griffin said the city is in mourning.

"We want to thank the officers who bravely and heroically came to the rescue of those of us in the council chambers," said Griffin.

"The business of the city will continue and we will recover, but we will never be the same," he added. "The healing process starts now."

According to a sequence of events offered by police, Thornton parked on the street between City Hall and the Kirkwood Police Department. He crossed the street and walked up to Biggs, who had just come out of the police station on his way to grab a pizza at Imo's.

"He approached Biggs and we don't know what happened between them, but then he shot Biggs," said County Police Officer Tracy Panus.

"He intially had one gun, a large-caliber revolver. After he shot Biggs, he did take his gun and at that point he had two guns."

Biggs was able to hit the alert tone on his radio at some point during the confrontation, and that tone summoned help.

Officers rushed outside, heard the commotion inside City Hall and ran there to confront Thornton.

"They engaged with him in gunfire," Panus said.

No word on how many shots were fired in all.

Thornton's body was found in a far corner of the council chambers, behind a desk.

The gunmans' brother, Gerald Thornton, reiterated today that his brother believed he was "going to war" with a city that did not respect his rights. 

"I knew a lot, because my brother talked to me about it," he said.


Kirkwood Police Chief Jack Plummer's department lost one officer, Sgt. Bill McEntee, in 2005. McEntee was gunned down in the city's Meacham Park neighborhood by Kevin Johnson. Johnson was convicted late last year and sentenced to death earlier this month.

At today's news conference, Plummer said: "We've all been here before, unfortunately, and we will move past this."

"There's an old phrase, 'you don't get more than you can handle.' That's being tested but we'll get through it. We ask for your help."

Griffin, the deputy mayor, said Kirkwood is a great community that will pull through.

"We will carry on," he said. "We do this first by honoring the victims and by supporting their families."

Meanwhile, police duties in Kirkwood are being handled by St. Louis County police officers and the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Panus said Kirkwood requested the assistance. The state and county officers will respond to all police calls in Kirkwood "until further notice," Panus said.

OUR PREVIOUS STORY

By Greg Jonsson
of the Post-Dispatch


KIRKWOOD — 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.

Police said those killed included three Kirkwood officials, two police officers and the shooter. Two others, including Mayor Mike Swoboda, were injured.

The Post-Dispatch confirmed through officials and other sources that among the dead were Councilwoman Connie Karr, Public Works Director Kenneth Yost and police officers Tom Ballman and William Biggs.

A correspondent for the Post-Dispatch who was attending said the 7 p.m. meeting had just started when Thornton rushed into the council chambers yelling and began shooting with at least one weapon.

"He came from the back of the room," said Janet McNichols, the correspondent. "He kept yelling something about 'shoot the mayor' and he just walked around shooting anybody he could."

McNichols said the shooter first fired at Ballman, a police officer at the meeting. She said she looked up and saw that the officer had been shot in the head.

Thornton then targeted Yost, who was sitting in front of McNichols. He also was hit in the head, she said.

"After that, I was on my stomach under the chairs," she said. "I laid on my stomach waiting to get shot. Oh, God, it was a horror."

McNichols said Thornton continued to yell about the mayor. From his voice and the gunshots, she could tell he had approached the dais at the front of the room, where the council sits behind a semicircular desk.

He fired at City Attorney John Hessel, who told McNichols he fended the attacker off by throwing chairs. She saw Hessel later, appearing uninjured except for a knot on his head.

McNichols said councilman Michael H.T. Lynch also was shot.

Tom Noonan, a former city council member and a friend of the mayor, said Swoboda was in intensive care at St. John's Mercy Medical Center. He was in critical condition Friday morning at the hospital, said hospital spokesman Bill McShane.

After the gunman fired at officials around the dais, police officers burst into the room and there was more yelling, McNichols said. Thornton shouted he had a gun, shots were fired and officers shouted they had gotten him.

St. Louis County police spokeswoman Tracy Panus later confirmed that police had killed the man believed to be the shooter.

"We have what we believe to be our suspect," Panus said. "We are not currently actively searching for anyone in the area."

McNichols said about 30 people were in the council chambers at the time of the shooting. Witnesses were herded into offices while police secured the council chambers. Later they were taken to the police station to be interviewed.

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 emergency room at St. John's. Smith was in satisfactory condition Friday morning.

Thornton was not a stranger to the council, where he was often a contentious presence.

McNichols said he often aimed his ire at Swoboda and at Yost.

Late last month, a federal judge in St. Louis dismissed a lawsuit in which Thornton, representing himself, claimed Kirkwood officials violated his free speech rights by prohibiting him from speaking out at meetings.

In a ruling Jan. 28, U.S. District Judge Catherine D. Perry took into account that Thornton had twice been convicted of disorderly conduct for disrupting meetings in 2006 with off-point complaints about persecution by officials.

"He'd come to the meeting and he'd have a big easel and a picture of a donkey on there and call the council asses," McNichols said.

Sportscaster Doug Vaughn of Channel 4 said he went to Kirkwood High School with Thornton and has run into him through the years. He said Thornton's behavior changed after police cracked down on his parking of vehicles for his construction company outside his home in Meacham Park. He felt harassed, Vaughn said.

"He was more than a critic," Vaughn said. "It got to where he was showing up at every council meeting and trying to dominate everything. He kind of lost his mind."

Mike Prosperi, owner of the Imo's Pizza near City Hall and near where the first officer was killed, said everyone knew "Cookie." He said Thornton was known for his contentiousness at council meetings, but said there was another side.

"I'm just so shocked," Prosperi said. "He always had a smile on his face. He was always saying, 'God bless you. God bless you.' If he'd see you at the Sam's Club or the hardware store, he'd go out of his way to say hello."

On Friday morning, Jean Gutchewsky, an eighth grade reading teacher at nearby Nipher Middle School, came to lay flowers in front of City Hall.

"Cookie was not a monster," Gutchewsky said. "He used to be a real happy guy. He just snapped. We need a lot of prayers today."

Family members of Thornton said Thursday night that they had no idea that he was contemplating anything violent. They said they were stunned after learning about the shootings from news reports.

City Hall is at 139 Kirkwood Road, with the police department just to the west across a parking lot. Three blocks surrounding it were quickly cordoned off as dozens of police cars, firetrucks and ambulances from other districts, including Normandy, Eureka and Des Peres, poured in to help.

An hour after the shootings, ambulances and fire rescue vehicles were still arriving.

Dotti Durbin and her husband, Mike, planned to attend the City Council meeting to learn about an idea to rezone an area near Manchester and Kirkwood roads but she was held up at work. She was met by dozens of police cars as she drove to City Hall in hopes of catching part of the meeting.

"Lucky for us that we weren't at that meeting," Durbin said.

About a block away from City Hall is a monument to another recent violent incident in Kirkwood. It honors Sgt. Bill McEntee, who was gunned down in the city's Meacham Park neighborhood by Kevin Johnson in 2005. Johnson was convicted late last year and sentenced to death earlier this month.

"It's just mind-boggling to see all this happening again," said John DeSherlia, who lives nearby. "I mean, this is like déjà vu. You don't think these things will happen in Kirkwood. We've built ourselves up as such a safe community."

McEntee was the second police officer in Kirkwood to be killed since 1898. The two officers killed Thursday were the third and fourth.

"It's so hard at this point to make sense of this," said the Rev. Robert Osborne of St. Peters Church in Kirkwood. He is the Kirkwood police chaplain.

He had spent the evening with police. He described it as a scene of great sadness.

Police from area departments were offering condolences and hugs, he said. Condolences were also pouring in from elected officials around the state.

"I join Missourians tonight in praying for the victims, their families and friends, and everyone in the community of Kirkwood," Gov. Matt Blunt said.

The shooting incident on Thursday night was reminiscent of the day in 1992 when Kenneth Baumruk, a litigant in a divorce case, pulled put a pistol in the St. Louis County Courthouse in Clayton, killed his wife and wounded four others. He survived and has been sentenced to death for the slaying.

The shootings stirred up fears for some mayors, who said they have sometimes felt unsafe when controversial issues or angry residents confront them.

In 2004, at the height of a controversy involving construction of a local shopping center, Maplewood Mayor Mark Langston called in two police officers to serve as sergeants at arms at a City Council meeting.

"That's not something we normally do, but I had a feeling about that meeting," said Langston, 53, who has served as mayor for seven years. "It was an issue that some people had become totally obsessed and upset about and it all came to a head that night... We felt really exposed. We realized that if someone got mad enough to get violent, it would be tough to stop them."

Leah Thorsen, Doug Moore, Stephen Deere, Ken Leiser, Robert Cohen, Steve Giegerich, Paul Hampel, David Hunn, Phil Sutin, Tim O'Neil and Todd Frankel, of the Post-Dispatch, contributed to this report.

gjonsson@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8253