Gerald Thornton

Gerald Thornton says that his brother, mass murderer Charles "Cookie" Thornton, went to war with the government when he executed five people at a Kirkwood, Missouri City Council meeting.

Gerald Thornton is waging a war of his own today.

KIRKWOOD, Mo. -- Standing across the street from the site of the killings, Gerald Thornton told reporters that his brother, Charles “Cookie” Thornton, had become “a country of himself” and was forced to “go to war” after the judicial system denied his claims of mistreatment.

“He didn’t go out shooting random people,” Gerald Thornton said. “He mapped out his strategy for war and executed it.”

Another brother, Arthur Thornton, told The Associated Press that his brother left a suicide note on his bed warning “The truth will come out in the end,” before he went on the deadly shooting spree.

Arthur Thornton, 42, said in an interview at the family’s home that he knew his brother was responsible for the killings when he read the one-line note.

“It looks like my brother is going crazy, but he’s just trying to get people’s attention,” Thornton said, explaining he believed the note reflected his brother’s growing frustration with local leaders.

Gerald Thornton said his brother’s problems with the city stemmed from disagreements over building permits. Charles Thornton owned a construction company, Cook Co., that was frequently cited for performing work without the proper permits.

Charles Thornton was cited for more than 126 violations totaling around $64,000, Gerald Thornton said.

The city’s arguments were wrong, his brother said, but when Thornton challenged them in court, his arguments were overruled. It was those failures to find justice in the courts that led him to act last night.

“I understand why he did it,” he said. “He declared war because of the actions done by the court.”

Gerald Thornton is sick.

I understand why he would be grieving his brother's death and trying to come to grips with what he did.

The thing is Gerald Thornton is condoning the murders. He's claiming they were a reasonable reaction to what his brother experienced.

Sick.

...“Those people he went after were the people listed in his problems with the city,” Thornton said. “Once he was abused by the people in that hall over there he stood up and tried to rectify it.”

...When asked if he felt for his brother’s victims, Thornton said: “No one wants to see loss of life over issues that should’ve been solved. We have educated people over there and they should’ve been able to see the things they were doing should’ve came to an end sooner.”

Thornton also raised the issue of race, suggesting that African Americans have a more difficult time exerting their rights and that his brother’s race was a factor in his difficulties with the city and in the courts.

It's disgusting that Gerald Thornton is playing the race card.

Supposedly, racism pushed his brother over the edge. In effect, Charles Thornton was the victim here.

Disgusting.

His brother's execution of a bloodbath was not an exercise in "educating people" or raising consciousness.

It was cold-blooded murder. No excuses. End of story.