A gunman has killed at least five people in a shooting rampage at a council meeting in the US state of Missouri, Ten days after losing a federal lawsuit he insisted harassed him
Charles Lee Thornton stormed into the meeting in a suburb of St Louis last night and opened fire, killing two police officers and three others before being shot dead himself.
Among the dead were two police officers, a city councillor and the gunman, a St. Louis County police spokesman said. Two people were wounded.
A correspondent for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who was attending said the 7 p.m. meeting had just started — the mayor was starting the meeting just after the Pledge of Allegiance — when the man rushed into the council chambers yelling and began opening fire with at least one weapon.
“He came from the back of the room,” said Janet McNichols, the correspondent.
“He kept saying something about, ‘Shoot the mayor’ and he just walked around shooting anybody he could.”
Witnesses say Thornton was well-known at City Hall and had previously disrupted council meetings.