Unarmed security guard faces lawsuit for failing to prevent massacre

By Kurt Hofmann, examiner.com

St. Louis area readers will most likely remember the lethal rampage almost two years ago at a Kirkwood City Coucnil meeting. The shooting, by Charles Lee “Cookie” Thortnon–who seemed to have borne a more or less perpetual series of grievances against the City Council, claimed five victims immediately (plus Thornton, who was killed by police), and Mayor Mike Swoboda, who died several months later as a result of his wounds.

What brings this up again now is the fact that an unarmed security guard has been named in a lawsuit for failing to stop the killer.

An attorney for the daugher of one of the victims seems to claim that the guard, Ronald L. Whitehead, should have taken Thornton’s angry relationship with the City Council into consideration, and based on that consideration, apparently should have prevented Thornton from entering . . . somehow (this was after Thornton had already killed a police officer in the parking lot, and taken his gun).

When Thornton first arrived outside, Mr. Whitehead did go upstairs and alert the police officer providing secuity inside (that officer was also killed later in the rampage). Beyond that, what would the plaintiffs have had Mr. Whitehead do?

While I certainly can understand having some doubts about the efficacy of unarmed “security,” the City Council, presumably, knew that Mr.

Whitehead was unarmed when they hired the services of the secuity company (Whelan Security) for which he worked.

Is Mr. Whitehead being sued, in effect, for being unarmed? If so, that would seem to have the potential to have an interesting effect on the “guns at work” debate.