Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

Original Story here. (http://www.myfoxstl.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=5713224&version=6&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1)


Two Kirkwood Police Officers, Gunman Dead In Shooting
Last Edited: Thursday, 07 Feb 2008, 8:29 PM CST
Created: Thursday, 07 Feb 2008, 7:18 PM CST


Two Kirkwood Police Officers were shot and killed Thursday night when a lone gunman walked into a city council planning meeting and started shooting.

The Mayor of Kirkwood Mayor Mike Swoboda, two city councilmen, and the Public works director were wounded. All have been taken to a local hospital.

Police were able to return fire. The gunman, identified as Charles Lee Thornton, was also killed.



This is a 55 man department, and this makes three LOD deaths in two years. It is about 10 minutes from me, in St. Louis County. I have friends there, no identifying info on the officers yet.

Prayers needed.

KIRKWOOD, Mo. — A gunman opened fire at a city council meeting in this St. Louis suburb Thursday night, hitting the mayor and several city officials, a newspaper reported.

MyFOXStLouis.com has reported that two police officers were killed, as well as the gunman.

Police shot the gunman, who had hit Kirkwood Mayor Mike Swoboda, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which had a reporter at the meeting.

Also shot were a police officer, council members Michael H.T. Lynch and Connie Karr, and Public Works Director Kenneth Yost, said the reporter, Janet McNichols.

The victims were taken to St. John's Mercy Hospital, but Kirkwood police told The Associated Press no one was available to provide information. St. Louis County police did not return several calls.

The reporter said the 7 p.m. meeting had just started when the gunman rushed into the council chambers yelling and opened fire with at least one weapon. He started yelling "shoot the mayor" while walking around and firing, hitting a police officer first, the reporter said.

McNichols also said the shooter fired at the city attorney, who tried to fight off the attacker by throwing chairs. The gunman then moved behind a desk where the council sits and fired at council members.

About 30 people were in the council chambers, the reporter said.

Dozens of emergency vehicles were on the scene, and an area of several blocks was cordoned off along a busy north-south corridor around City Hall.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,329767,00.html

that sucks. Glad they nailed the shooter.

FoxNews is now reporting at least 6 dead now

Story here (http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/C9F47E8DFBA0B871862573E90007E20F?OpenDocument) from the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

An armed man walked into a Kirkwood city council meeting Thursday night and shot several people, including the at least one police officer, the city’s mayor and several council members.

At least one city council member is confirmed dead.

A correspondent for the Post-Dispatch who was attending said the 7 p.m. meeting had just started — the mayor was starting the meeting just after the Pledge of Allegiance — when the man rushed into the council chambers yelling and began opening fire with at least one weapon. She identified the man as Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton, a man she knows from covering the council.

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

McNichols said the shooter first fired at Tom Ballman, a police officer at the meeting. She said she looked up to see the officer shot in the head.

Thornton then targeted Public Works Director Kenneth Yost, who was sitting in front of McNichols. He was also 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, and 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.

At some point 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.

Among those hit, in addition to Ballman and Yost, were Mayor Mike Swoboda, and council members Michael H.T. Lynch and Connie Karr, McNichols said. Conditions were not known for any of them.

Then police officers burst into the room and there was more yelling, McNichols said. First, Thornton saying he had a gun, she said. Then gunshots and the officers saying they’d got him.

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 scene. Later they were taken to the police station to be interviewed.

Thornton was not a stranger to the council, where he was often a contentious presence. In May 2006, he was handcuffed and pulled from a meeting. He was charged with disorderly conduct and released.

McNichols said he often aimed his ire at the mayor 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 came to many, many meetings and always said terrible things to the mayor," McNichols remmebered. "He’d come to the meeting and he’d have a big easel and a picture. a donkey on there and call the council asses."

Sportscaster Doug Vaughn of Channel 4 told that station that he went to Kirkwood High School with Thornton and saw 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 could not have been a nicer guy to those who knew them but I think this problem with the city drove him completely crazy," Vaughn said in the TV interview.

City Hall is at 139 Kirkwood Road. 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.

Even an hour after the shootings, ambulances and fire rescue vehicles were still arriving at the scene.

Media were kept about three blocks from the scene.

Dotti Durban and her husband, Mike, had planned to attend the City Council meeting to learn about an idea to rezone an area near Manchester and Lindbergh but she got 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," Durban said.

Press conference under way now. More details to come.

Feb 8, 2008 12:43 am US/Central

KIRKWOOD, Mo. (AP) ― A gunman with a history of acrimony against civic leaders stormed City Hall during a council meeting Thursday night, killing two police officers and three city officials before law enforcers fatally shot him, authorities said. The mayor was critically injured in the rampage.

The victims at the meeting in suburban St. Louis were killed after the gunman rushed the council chambers and began firing as he yelled "Shoot the mayor!" according to St. Louis County Police spokeswoman Tracy Panus. Two people were wounded before Kirkwood police fatally shot him, she said.

Panus said the names of the victims would not be released until a news conference Friday morning. But the wounded included Mayor Mike Swoboda, who was in critical condition late Thursday in the intensive-care unit of St. John's Mercy Hospital in Creve Coeur, hospital spokesman Bill McShane said, declining to discuss the nature of the injuries. McShane said another victim, Suburban Journals newspaper reporter Todd Smith, was in satisfactory condition.

The gunman killed one officer outside City Hall, then walked into the chambers and shot another before continuing to fire, Panus said.

Janet McNichols, a reporter covering the meeting for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, told the newspaper that the 7 p.m. meeting with about 30 people had just started when the shooter rushed in and opened fire with at least one weapon. He started yelling about shooting the mayor while walking around and firing, hitting police Officer Tom Ballman in the head, she said.

Public Works Director Kenneth Yost was shot in the head, and council members Michael H.T. Lynch and Connie Karr also were hit, she said.

The gunman also fired at City Attorney John Hessel, who tried to fight off the attacker by throwing chairs, McNichols told the newspaper. The shooter then moved behind the desk where the council sits and fired more shots at council members, she said.

"Tonight our fellow Missourians in the city of Kirkwood were terrorized by a senseless and horrific crime at an open government meeting," Gov. Matt Blunt said in a statement. "I join Missourians tonight in praying for the victims, their families and friends, and everyone in the community of Kirkwood."

Police have not named the gunman, but McNichols identified him as Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton, whom she knows from covering the council. Thornton had previously disrupted meetings, she told the Post-Dispatch.

Thornton was well-known at City Hall, often making outrageous comments at public meetings, according to a 2006 article in the weekly Webster-Kirkwood Times.

The newspaper quoted Swoboda as saying in June 2006 that Thornton's contentious remarks over the years created "one of the most embarrassing situations that I have experienced in my many years of public service."

Swoboda's comments came during a council meeting attended by Thornton two weeks after the man was forcibly removed from the chambers. The mayor said at the time that the council considered banning Thornton from future meetings but decided against it.

"The city council has decided that they will not lower themselves to Mr. Thornton's level," Swoboda said at the meeting. "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."

Thornton said during the meeting that he had been issued more than 150 tickets.

He was arrested twice and later convicted for disorderly conduct for outbursts at two council meetings in 2006, convinced the city was persecuting him. When allowed to speak during one meeting, he approached the podium with a posterboard with a picture of a donkey and began making harassing remarks about Swoboda.

In a federal lawsuit stemming from those meetings, Thornton, representing himself, insisted that Kirkwood officials violated his constitutional rights to free speech by barring him from speaking at the meetings. But a judge in St. Louis tossed out the suit Jan. 28, writing that "any restrictions on Thornton's speech were reasonable, viewpoint neutral, and served important governmental interests."

Kirkwood is about 20 miles southwest of downtown St. Louis. City Hall is in a quiet area filled with condominiums, eateries and shops, not far from a dance studio and train station.

The police department's chaplain said law enforcers from several agencies were anguished over the shootings.

"They're all just so sad, shocked by this," said Father Robert Osborne of St. Peter Catholic Church. "This doesn't happen in Kirkwood."

Mary Linhares, a teacher who lives about four blocks from City Hall and who walked down to the scene with her husband, described the town as quiet and eclectic.

"It's like a small town in St. Louis," Linhares said. "You can call it Mayberry."

Despite its reputation locally for serenity, Kirkwood has grappled in recent years with crimes that have brought it unwanted attention.

Just down the street from City Hall is the Imo's pizzeria once managed by Michael Devlin, the man who kidnapped Shawn Hornbeck when the boy was just 11 in 2002 and held him for four years before authorities rescued him from the home in January last year. Also rescued was Ben Ownby, another teenager Devlin abducted just days before Devlin's arrest.

Those crimes got Devlin life terms on state charges, as well as 170 years behind bars on federal charges that he made pornography.

City Hall also is about a block from a park now named for former Kirkwood police Sgt. William McEntee, who was a 43-year-old father of three when he was slain in 2005 by a man who witnesses said blamed police for the death of his 12-year-old half-brother two hours earlier.

(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

link (http://cbs2chicago.com/national/shooting.missouri.meeting.2.648898.html)


Prayers with the victims families and friends, and I hope that bastard is enjoying Hell.

...
Prayers with the victims families and friends, and I hope that bastard is enjoying Hell.


Concur 100%

Hindsight of course being 20/20, I have to wonder at the preparedness or a plan for when he showed up, like he said he would.

How big is Kirkwood?

...and kudos, I guess, to the City Attorney for fighting with whatever was available... or he was allowed to have......

RIP. Thoughts and prayers being sent. What a terrible thing to happen.

Tom Ballman (http://www.odmp.org/officer/19195-police-officer-tom-ballman)


Police Officer Tom Ballman
Kirkwood Police Department
Missouri
End of Watch: Thursday, February 7, 2008

Biographical Info
Age: Not available
Tour of Duty: Not available
Badge Number: Not available

Incident Details
Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: Thursday, February 7, 2008
Weapon Used: Gun; Unknown type
Suspect Info: Shot and killed

Officer Tom Ballman and Sergeant William Biggs were shot and killed when a suspect opened fire at a Kirkwood city council meeting. The man had held a grudge against the city council for several years and had filed several lawsuits against the city.

The suspect approached Sergeant Biggs across the street from the city hall and asked him what time the meeting started, then pulled out a handgun and shot fatally shot him in the head. The man then took Sergeant Biggs' service weapon and walked across the street into the city hall.

When he entered the council chambers he approached Officer Ballman, who was sitting in the front of the room, and also fatally shot him in the head. The man then opened fire on the other occupants of the room, killing two council members and the director of public works before being shot and killed by two other officers.


William Biggs (http://www.odmp.org/officer/19196-sergeant-william-biggs)




Sergeant William Biggs
Kirkwood Police Department
Missouri
End of Watch: Thursday, February 7, 2008

Biographical Info
Age: Not available
Tour of Duty: Not available
Badge Number: Not available

Incident Details
Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: Thursday, February 7, 2008
Weapon Used: Gun; Unknown type
Suspect Info: Shot and killed

Sergeant William Biggs and Officer Tom Ballman were shot and killed when a suspect opened fire at a Kirkwood city council meeting. The man had held a grudge against the city council for several years and had filed several lawsuits against the city.

The suspect approached Sergeant Biggs across the street from the city hall and asked him what time the meeting started, then pulled out a handgun and shot fatally shot him in the head. The man then took Sergeant Biggs' service weapon and walked across the street into the city hall.

When he entered the council chambers he approached Officer Ballman, who was sitting in the front of the room, and also fatally shot him in the head. The man then opened fire on the other occupants of the room, killing two council members and the director of public works before being shot and killed by two other officers.

%^*#ing ridiculous.. :mad: Rot in hell motherf*#@er

St. Louis Post Dispatch Story (http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/DF9F175C2F225844862573E9001BDB9A?OpenDocument)




ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

(Emily Rasinski/P-D)

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 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.

My condolences go out to all the family members and friends.

Truly horrible. RIP Officers and those in the city council who died, and as for Mr. Shooting Rampage Maniac, burn in hell bastard.

I've got a relative living in Kirkwood.

This is terrible.