Gunman kills five, wounds reporter in St. Louis suburb

And and elementary school teacher was shot this morning in southern Ohio.

 

In a suburb like this, though, there was likely more than 2 cops. I've been to city council meetings where the police chief and most of his officers came to every city council meeting.

 

I covered city council at my last stop. Thank God nothing happened like this. It's a shame.

 

We all agree that it's a shame and an awful tragedy, but this stuff really <i>surprises</i> you?

Frankly, I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.

As a footnote, the newspaper where the injured reporter worked (Suburban Journals) has an AP STORY up on the website. Am I missing something?

Link: <a href="http://suburbanjournals.stltoday.com/">Kirkwood-Webster paper</a>

 

Just depends on the size of the town as to how many cops are going to be there. But even with that, in a crowded room like the council chambers (at least, the ones I've been in) even half a dozen officers might have a hard time getting off a shot without hitting an innocent.

And how about the shooter's brother?
"The only way that I can put into context that you might understand is that my brother went to war tonight with the people, the government that was putting torment and strife into his life," Thornton's brother, Gerald Thornton, told KMOV-TV of St. Louis.

 

It's a weekly paper. Without knowing the staff size, they may have not had a chance to really put much together.

 

The shooter's brother doesn't sound like they were all that close.

 

Here's the full story on the brother:

http://www.kmov.com/topstories/stories/kmov_localnews_080207_geraldthornton.9e51d0ab.html

And the brother sounds, to me, like he's mitigating the shooting at best, and condoning it at worst. Sounds like there's something running through this family.

 

"The government" was tormenting his life?
End well, this will not.
Everybody who's ever covered city government knows about these folks. Usually, they sit there, ruffle through an old briefcase full of papers, yell a couple of things about being screwed by "the government," and go home and wait on hold for an hour to appear on their favorite talk shows. Cranks with guns, though, is a new development.

 

A friend of mine refers to folks like this as CAVE men. CAVE Stands for:

Citizens
Against
Virtually
Everything

 

The shooter's brother is on MSNBC now, doing everything short of saying he a.) was justified and b.) may not have done it in the first place.

What a nutbar.

 

Fucking Cardinals fans...