Tragedy in Kirkwood

Thursday night, tragedy struck Kirkwood, Missouri. A man Charles Lee "Cookie" Thorton, walked into a city council meeting with a loaded gun and killed 5 people before he was killed too. Thorton walked in, killed a cop- took his gun and then started shooting. The five victims of Thorton's rampage are Kirkwood City Council members Connie Karr (apparently she worked at Maritz- one floor beneath my dad) and Michael H.T. Lynch, Kirkwood Public Works Director Kenneth Yost, and Kirkwood Police Officer Tom Ballman and Sgt. William Biggs. Thorton shot the town's mayor twice in the head. Mayor Mike Swoboda is currently in critical condition at St. Johns Hospital. He aslo shot Suburban Journals reporter Todd Smith in the hand. Smith was covering the meeting. One person managed to get out of city hall unhurt; City Attorney John Hessel. Hessel had both guns pointed at him, and thought he was dead. Then he threw a chair at him, and the guns aimed to the right, he then threw 2 more chairs. So he started running. He saw Thorton coming after him, then Thorton tripped over one of the dead bodies. He managed to get out after cops, responding to the gunfire, entered the building and shot the gunman dead. According the the survivor, Thorton was aiming specifically at Councilman Yost, Mayor Swoboda, and himself. Click here to read his story. Apparently a fued had been going on between Thorton and Kirkwood for years. It all started off with parking tickets for his parking of his trucks on the street for his construction business. A total of 150 tickets, Kirkwood let these tickets slide- forgetting about them. These tickets escalted to several lawsuits, resulting in denials, going to appeals. Thorton felt his rights were being denied. Though what made him snap is a mystery. One of Thorton's brothers said that Thortons actions were justified and that "he went to war". Justified! How can you justify the murders of 5, maybe 6 (hopefully not) innocent people! Sick, thats what that is. There is no justification for the actions of Thorton. What he did was wrong, evil, and unjust. Everyone on the news and people interviewed keep refering to Thorton as "Cookie", a nickname of his. Don't call him "Cookie", hes not a cookie, hes an insane murderer, a jerk, a destroyer of lives, etc...
Some people are calling this a "race" issue. It's not a race issue or a black vs white issue. It has nothing to do with race! Get over it! One reverend in Kirkwood said it best "This is not a race issue, this is a people issue". This was a horrible event. It was not a race issue.
My thoughts and prayers are with the victims families as well as Mayor Swoboda and his family.