BonnerSprings.com

The shooting of four city officials and two police officers in the town of Kirkwood, Mo., last week was an anomaly that couldn't be prevented, even with two police officers stationed at the City Hall there.

That's the consensus of officials in Bonner Springs and Edwardsville, who say besides that point they've never had individuals who nursed festering grudges over time and acted out regularly at public meetings, as the Kirkwood shooter did.

That's true even in Edwardsville, where the city council meetings have been known to serve as the forum for fiery, sometimes accusatory speeches by residents.

The Kirkwood gunman, Charles Thornton, had claimed the city had treated him unfairly for dozens of citations regarding parking of his construction equipment, according to the Webster-Kirkwood Times newspaper.

"Even during this, our current administration, we've had some passionate and enthusiastic citizens give their comments at perhaps inappropriate times," Edwardsville Mayor Heinz Rodgers said. "It's never anything more than verbal."

And no threats have been made, Rodgers said.

At last Friday's Regional Mayors Summit on Light Rail in Kansas City, Mo., Rodgers said the Kirkwood incident "was a topic of discussion for a lot of mayors," as it had just happened the night before and made the evening news.

The city is planning "no policy changes," Rodgers said, although he said if the City Council chambers were to be renovated, a bulletproof bench for Council members might be considered.

Edwardsville Police Chief Mark Mathies said he had no changes in mind either.

"The determination is, I already attend," Mathies said, as part of an informal tradition that all city department heads attend Council meetings. "I don't think we'll change much at this point, though I'm doing sort of an informal survey of what the mayor, city council and city administrator think."

As for his department's position, Mathies said, "we're not advising either way. Kirkwood had security."

The only other measures available - because only two police officers in total are on duty at the time of Council meetings, on patrol - would be, Mathies said, "locking the entire building down," which isn't practical for public meetings.

Bonner Springs City Manager John Helin and Mayor Clausie Smith both said they saw no need and had no plans to introduce security measures at Council meetings.

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