Kirkwood, Missouri is a small town southwest of St. Louis and is usually peaceful and quiet. However, on Thursday, February 7, 2008, a man named Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton ran into City Hall during a council meeting and began shooting. The meeting had just begun at 7 pm with about 30 people in the room. Six people were killed and others were injured before the police shot him as well. First, he killed one man/officer outside of city hall and then went inside and shot another person before he began shooting continuously. The mayor, Mike Swoboda, was critically injured and was rushed to the intensive care unit of St. John's Mercy Hospital. According to Janet McNichols, a reporter covering the meeting at the time of the shooting, the gunman entered the room and began yelling about shooting the mayor while walking around and firing. He shot Officer Tom Ballman in the head during this time.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080208/ap_on_re_us/missouri_shooting;_ylt=AtoTzt9ezgQr7PbtM5ypw7ys0NUE)
Although the motives for the shooting remain unclear, McNichols said that Thornton had disrupted many other meetings prior to this one. Thornton was known for his outrageous comments during other meetings and even mayor Swoboda said that his encounters with Thornton were, "one of the most embarrassing situations that I have experienced in my many years of public service." Even though the council were considering banning Thronton from future meetings, they decided against it. He was also arrested twice before and convicted for disorderly conduct.
(http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/02/07/city.council.shooting/index.html)
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