On February 7, 2008, a gunman went on a shooting rampage at a public meeting in the city hall, leaving six people dead[n 1] and a seventh injured in Kirkwood, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.

In a parking lot across the side street from City Hall, Thornton confronted Biggs and shot him with a Smith & Wesson Model 29 .44 Magnum revolver, killing him instantly.

[8][9] All of this gunfire was audible at the Kirkwood police department building, located across a small parking lot from the rear entrance to city hall.

[7][10][11] In total, Thornton killed five people and wounded two, reporter Todd Smith and Mayor Swoboda, who were taken to St. John's Mercy Medical Center, the latter in critical condition.

[citation needed] A reporter for the local Suburban Journals, Todd Smith, was shot in the hand but released from the hospital within 24 hours.

[14] Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton (December 23, 1955 – February 7, 2008)[15] was a lifelong resident of Meacham Park, an unincorporated predominantly African American community that bordered Kirkwood in St. Louis County, Missouri.

In 1992, a ballot proposition appeared under which Kirkwood, an abutting, comparatively prosperous city with only a small percentage of African-American residents, would annex the low-income Meacham Park area.

[18] Via eminent domain, part of the Meacham Park area was taken for a large commercial development in the late 1990s in a tax increment financing project.

Thornton, who foresaw that his construction company would get contracts in this development, was a public proponent of it, in this respect opposing the views of some others in Meacham Park.

[15][19] In 1999, Thornton filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging racial discrimination in the awarding of contracts he had wanted.

In June 1998, he pleaded guilty to six violations; and agreed to a five-phase plan to bring his property and his paving business into conformance with city codes within two years.

By late 2001, Thornton had been cited many dozens more times by Kirkwood officials under municipal code enforcement actions for operating an unlicensed business from his home in a residentially-zoned incorporated area; illegal dumping; destruction of property; parking his construction company's equipment near his home; and for numerous other municipal code violations.

[18] Thornton repeatedly sued the city and Kirkwood public works director Ken Yost in state court unsuccessfully during a period of several years in the early 2000s.

In 2005, the Missouri Court of Appeals opinion dismissing his suit against Kirkwood and Ken Yost for malicious prosecution and civil rights violations termed his brief "largely incomprehensible".

However, both were defeated; Kirkwood mayor Mike Swoboda stated then that, "We will act with integrity and continue to deal with him at these council proceedings.

[22][29] On March 15, 2007, Thornton entered a motion with the court with the purpose of amending the January 18 suit in several ways, including adding a claim for $14 million in damages.

[15] A federal judge in St. Louis, Missouri ruled on January 28, 2008, on the lawsuit by Thornton in which he claimed his free speech rights were violated by Kirkwood officials preventing him from speaking at meetings.

The judge dismissed his claims, citing his convictions for disorderly conduct at the 2006 meetings because "Thornton does not have a First Amendment right to engage in irrelevant debate and to voice repetitive, personal, virulent attacks against Kirkwood and its city officials during the comment portion of a city council public hearing, his claim fails as a matter of law.

[22] Witnesses, relatives, and acquaintances of Thornton reported that his motive for the shooting spree was anger about not receiving construction contracts he believed he was promised, his parking tickets, disputes with local government, and finally the dismissal of his federal lawsuit.

Outside of the Kirkwood police department building various flowers and an American flag were laid in memoriam of the two officers killed during the shooting.