By Tim Parker
The gunman, who was later shot dead by police, was identified by witnesses as 52-year-old Charles "Cookie" Thornton, a contractor in a feud with local officials. Police declined to confirm his identity.
"He kept saying something about, 'Shoot the mayor' and he just walked around shooting anybody he could," said Janet McNichols, a reporter covering the meeting for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper.
A city attorney fended off the gunman by throwing chairs at him, according to witnesses at the meeting that was attended by roughly 30 people.
Thornton was well-known for his erratic behaviour in Kirkwood, an upscale suburb of 25,000 people about 15 miles (24 km) southwest of St. Louis.
Swoboda, the mayor since 2000 and a council member dating to 1976, was due to leave office within months.
"My brother went to war tonight with the people and government that were putting torment and strife into his life and he ended it," Gerald Thornton said. "I'm OK with it."
Mass shootings are not particularly rare in the United States. In December, a 19-year-old gunman in Omaha, Nebraska, killed eight people and then himself at a shopping mall, and on Saturday a man robbing a clothing store outside Chicago shot five women to death. He has not yet been caught.
