An American man who had repeatedly refused to pay his parking fines shot dead five people last night after bursting into a council meeting in Missouri brandishing two handguns, including a .357 magnum.
Officials said the gunman - who was shouting ‘shoot the mayor’ as he blasted his way across the chamber - shot dead two policemen and three council employees attending a suburban mayoral meeting in Kirkwood, St. Louis, before being shot dead by police.
The names of the victims have not been officially confirmed, but it was thought that Mike Swoboda, the mayor, survived the attack despite suffering a gunshot wound.
Marty Harris, a local journalist at the Webster-Kirkwood Times, was one of around 30 people at the City Hall meeting when the rampage began at about 7pm local time. He recognised the gunman as Charles Lee “Cookie” Thornton, an aggrieved resident with a history of disputes with the local government.
The mayor had previously considered banning Thornton from the mayoral chambers because he had disrupted so many meetings after collecting up to 150 council fines ranging from parking violations to running his demolition company without the proper licences.
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Mr Harris said: “Cookie Thornton then walked in, he said something ... something about justice, and then he showed two handguns. . . one was a large gun. I learned later that it was a .357 magnum. The next thing you know, he walked up the right hand side of the council chambers, where [a police officer] was sitting, and he shot him in the head.
“At that point, I had hit the floor along with another reporter. I thought he was going to shoot everyone who was there that night.”
The journalist said that John Hessel, the city attorney, tried to fend off Thornton by throwing chairs at him.
The shooting took place in the quiet suburb of Kirkwood, about 20 miles southwest of St. Louis city centre.
The gunman shot a police officer in a car park outside Kirkwood City Hall, which is surrounded by shops and restaurants, before walking into the mayoral chambers and continuing his killing spree.
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A St. Louis County Police spokeswoman confirmed that the man was then shot and killed by armed police officers.
According to local media, Thornton had a history of disputes with City Hall and was twice arrested at council meetings in 2006 after vocally and aggressively refusing to pay fines he had been issued.
In June 2006, the council debated banning Thornton from future meetings, but the Mr Swoboda, the mayor announced at the time: “The city council has decided that they will not lower themselves to Mr Thornton’s level.”
It was reported that Thornton even tried to sue the city in 2003 for “malicious prosecution” after referring to city officials as “jackasses” and Kirkwood as “the plantation”.
In 2003, Kirkwood City Attorney John Hessel said Thornton had collected the largest number of fines he had ever seen while representing cities since 1977.
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The Webster-Kirkwood Times reported that Thornton was constantly receiving tickets for parking his trucks illegally, violating building codes and running his construction company without a permit. Thornton dismissed the fines as “slave tax”.