Lawsuit! private guard failed to thwart shooting

A lawsuit faults an unarmed private security officer for allowing Charles "Cookie" Thornton into a Kirkwood City Council meeting the night he fatally shot six people and was killed by police.

"This wasn't some fellow that was unknown to the city of Kirkwood," said Chet Pleban, attorney for the daughter of Constance Karr, a council member and mayoral candidate slain that night.

"This was a fellow who had an extremely adversarial history with the city and he's permitted to walk into the city building without restriction and without any sort of scrutiny whatsoever, carrying a sign and two guns after shots were heard in the parking lot."

A police report says the private officer, Ronald L. Whitehead, saw Thornton arrive outside City Hall the night of Feb. 7, 2008, and went upstairs to the meeting chamber to alert police Officer Thomas Ballman, who was providing security inside. The report says Ballman remained seated.

It also says that Whitehead returned to the lobby by the time Thornton passed him on the way to the chamber. Ballman would be among those Thornton killed.

The suit, filed Jan. 29 in St. Louis County Circuit Court, seeks in excess of $25,000 from Whitehead and his employer, Whelan Security.

Whitehead could not be reached Thursday for comment. Whelan's president, Greg Twardowski, issued a statement saying that neither the company nor its employee was responsible for the loss of life. "While our continued condolences go out to the victims and their families ... the claims asserted against us will be vigorously defended, and we are confident that they will be found to lack merit," he wrote.

City officials had no comment about the lawsuit.

Pleban said that Thornton was carrying a large cardboard sign, so Whitehead should have known he intended to disrupt the meeting.

Unknown to those in City Hall, Thornton had shot and killed police Sgt. William Biggs outside. Inside, he killed Karr, Ballman, Public Works Director Ken Yost and Councilman Mike Lynch outright and wounded Mayor Mike Swoboda, who died months later.

Kirkwood officials hired Whalen several years earlier to provide one guard at two council meetings a month, said Beth Von Behren, a city spokeswoman. Although details of the contract with Whelan were not immediately available, the city spends about $3,400 a year for the service, Behren said.

Thornton had previously disrupted meetings to draw attention to claims the city had mistreated him over ordinance violations and other issues.