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Columbia Missourian

According to prosecutor, Kirkwood shooter could have claimed more lives

By The Associated Press
August 8, 2008 | 6:33 p.m. CDT

CLAYTON — St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch says evidence shows Charles "Cookie" Thornton would have claimed more than five lives in a February rampage if he hadn't been shot and killed.

McCulloch says Thornton's fatal shots both inside and outside a Kirkwood City Hall meeting weren't directed at a few specific targets because he even killed an official who had helped him.

McCulloch, in a report released Friday, says 18 shots total were fired that night. Thornton fired one shot outside that killed a police sergeant and 11 shots inside Kirkwood City Hall. Two officers responding to the attack fired six shots inside City Hall.

He says the rampage lasted less than a minute.