Gunman kills five in U.S. city council

KIRKWOOD, Missouri (Reuters) - A gunman killed two policeofficers and three city officials on Thursday night when hestormed into a city council meeting in a suburb of St. Louis,police said.

The gunman, who was later shot dead by police, wasidentified by witnesses as 52-year-old Charles "Cookie"Thornton, a contractor in a feud with local officials. Policedeclined to confirm his identity.

He killed one police officer in the parking lot outside thecity hall building in Kirkwood, Missouri, before rushing in asthe meeting was getting under way.

"He kept saying something about, 'Shoot the mayor' and hejust walked around shooting anybody he could," said JanetMcNichols, a reporter covering the meeting for the St. LouisPost-Dispatch newspaper.

Police said he shot dead a second police officer, and threetwo council members and a city engineer.

A city attorney fended off the gunman by throwing chairs athim, according to witnesses at the meeting that was attended byroughly 30 people.

Kirkwood Mayor Mike Swoboda was shot in the head and was incritical condition and another reporter suffered a hand wound.

Thornton was well-known for his erratic behaviour inKirkwood, an upscale suburb of 25,000 people about 15 miles (24km) southwest of St. Louis.

He was convicted in 2006 of disorderly conduct after twicedisrupting city council meetings. Thornton had complained thathis contracting business was being harassed by city officialsand at one meeting he repeatedly called Mayor Swoboda a"jackass" before being hauled away.

Swoboda, the mayor since 2000 and a council member datingto 1976, was due to leave office within months.

After the shooting, local television station KMOV-TVinterviewed Gerald Thornton, the gunman's brother.

"My brother went to war tonight with the people andgovernment that were putting torment and strife into his lifeand he ended it," Gerald Thornton said. "I'm OK with it."

A lawsuit by Thornton charging that his constitutionalrights of free speech were violated at the meetings wasdismissed last month by a federal judge.

Mass shootings are not particularly rare in the UnitedStates. In December, a 19-year-old gunman in Omaha, Nebraska,killed eight people and then himself at a shopping mall, and onSaturday a man robbing a clothing store outside Chicago shotfive women to death. He has not yet been caught.

(Writing by Andrew Stern, editing by Sandra Maler)