United States:A gunman in the US killed two police officers and three city officials on Thursday night when he stormed into a city council meeting in a suburb of St Louis, Missouri, police said.
The gunman, who was later shot dead by police, was identified by witnesses as Charles "Cookie" Thornton (52), a contractor in a feud with local officials. Police declined to confirm his identity.
He killed one police officer in the parking lot outside the city hall building in Kirkwood, Missouri, before rushing in as the meeting was getting under way.
"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.
Police said he shot dead a second police officer, two council members and a city engineer. A city attorney fended off the gunman by throwing chairs at him, according to witnesses at the meeting that was attended by about 30 people.
Kirkwood mayor Mike Swoboda was shot in the head and was in a critical condition and another reporter suffered a hand wound.
Thornton was well known for his erratic behaviour in Kirkwood, an upmarket suburb of 25,000 people. He was convicted in 2006 of disorderly conduct after twice disrupting city council meetings. Thornton had complained that his contracting business was being harassed by officials and at one meeting he repeatedly called the mayor a "jackass" before being hauled away. Mr Swoboda, the mayor since 2000, was due to leave office within months.
After the shooting, a local television station interviewed Gerald Thornton, the gunman's brother.
"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 okay with it."
Just hours after the St Louis shootings a nursing student shot two women to death and killed herself in front of horrified classmates at a college in the southern state of Louisiana. As of last night investigators did not have a motive for the killings at the Louisiana Technical College in the state capital, Baton Rouge. Nor were details of the victims available.
- (Reuters)