page_title: Kirkwood, Missouri
section_title: Crime
hierarchical_section_title: Kirkwood, Missouri / Crime
caption_attribution_description: English: Kirkwood City Hall
context_page_description: Kirkwood is an inner-ring western suburb of St. Louis located in St. Louis County, Missouri. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 27,540. Founded in 1853, the city is named after James P. Kirkwood, builder of the Pacific Railroad through that town. It was the first planned suburb located west of the Mississippi River.
context_section_description: In 2005, 2007 and 2008, Kirkwood was the site of three sensational events. On July 5, 2005, Kevin Johnson shot and killed Sgt. William McEntee, who was investigating a fireworks call when Johnson walked up and shot him several times. Johnson was upset with police because he thought that they were responsible for his younger brother's death (although the brother died from a heart condition). He is currently on Missouri death row for the murder of McEntee.
  On January 12, 2007, Michael J. Devlin was arrested for abducting 13-year-old William "Ben" Ownby. Police had discovered that Ownby and also 15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck lived in Devlin's apartment. Hornbeck had been missing since he was 11 years old, when he was abducted from near his home in Richwoods, Missouri. The Shawn Hornbeck Foundation was set up to find him as well as other missing children.
  On February 7, 2008, Kirkwood resident Charles L.  "Cookie" Thornton shot many people at a Kirkwood city council session, killing five – Council Members Connie Karr and Michael H.T. Lynch, Public Works Director Kenneth Yost, and police officers Sgt. William Biggs and Tom Ballman. Sgt. Biggs was killed in the lot of a nearby Imo's Pizza restaurant. Thornton stole his gun and proceeded to enter the City Hall. Once inside, he killed Officer Ballman and opened fire on the city council. Kirkwood mayor Mike Swoboda and Suburban Journals reporter Todd Smith were injured. The gunman had a history of disruptive behavior and legal actions against the city government, related to ordinance violations and other issues with the police and the city council. Thornton was shot to death by additional police officers, all of whom responded after one of the fatally shot officers was able to activate his emergency signal by radio. Within minutes, multiple officers were on the scene. Mayor Swoboda died on September 6, 2008, succumbing to cancer in addition to complications from the February shootings.
caption: Kirkwood City Hall, where a spree shooting occurred in 2008
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