By IANS
New York : In yet another incident of gun violence in the US, a man shot dead five people and wounded two in the Kirkwood suburb of St. Louis in Missouri before the police fatally shot him.`
The gunman, said to have a history of acrimony against civic officials, stormed a city hall council meeting Thursday after killing a policeman and started firing while yelling, “Shoot the mayor!”
He managed to kill three city officials and one police officer. The mayor, Mike Swoboda, was critically injured in the rampage, according to TV and newspaper reports.
A newspaper reporter covering the council meeting identified the gunman as Charles Lee “Cookie” Thornton. He sued the city of Kirkwood after he was arrested twice for disorderly conduct at two council meetings in 2006. He was later convicted.
Just five days ago, a gunman shot dead five women inside a store in suburban Chicago and fled. He is still at large.
In May last year, a gunman killed two and wounded tow others before killing himself in the courthouse of an Idaho town.