Bob McCarty Writes

When I spoke to Gerald Thornton this morning, his manner was cold and matter-of-fact. Perhaps, he was tired after answering questions from so many news media reporters, producers and photographers on the plaza across the street from Kirkwood City Hall this morning.

Self-described as the “disabled” older brother of Kirkwood shooter Charles Lee “Cookie” Thornton, Gerald seemed to want to place the blame for Thursday night’s shooting rampage — an event that left six people, including three Kirkwood city officials, two police officers and himself, dead — upon anyone but Cookie. Members of the city council. The police. A judge. Anyone but Cookie.

Others who interviewed Gerald came away from Kirkwood with similar observations.

Reporters Jason Noble and Laura Bauer wrote this in a KansasCity.com piece today:

Surrounded by a crush of reporters, Gerald Thornton, two years Charles’ senior and one of nine siblings, verged on obstinate in his defense of his brother’s actions.

New York Times reporters Mike Nizza and Carla Baranauckas wrote this in their story, Missouri Town Mourns as Shooter’s Motives Emerge:

“My brother went to war tonight with the government,” Gerald Thornton said in an interview with a local television station after the incident. “He decided that he could no longer verbally work it out.”

If a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article about post-tragedy feelings in Cookie’s neighborhood is any indication of what the future holds, people living in the Saint Louis area shouldn’t be surprised if tensions rise in the Kirkwood area during the days and weeks to come. That article, Meacham Park meeting discusses race, begins this way:

In an emotional meeting of the Meacham Park Neighborhood Association this afternoon, a common theme was racial divide. People spoke angrily about it, cried about it and prayed to close it.

Many also spoke sympathetically of Charles “Cookie” Thornton, the man who murdered five at the Kirkwood City Hall Thursday night before police gunned him down. One man called Thornton a “hero.”

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To read other posts about the Kirkwood City Hall shootings, click here.