Washington Park, Ill., Mayor John Thornton was shot and killed Thursday morning as he was driving on a city street, Illinois State Police said.
City police Detective Kim McAfee said Thornton was shot twice in the chest in the pre-dawn incident, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
"We have a homicide to the mayor of Washington Park," McAffee told Illinois State Police dispatchers.
After Thornton was shot, his car crashed into a tree, police said. He was unresponsive when police arrived on the scene, officials said.
Thornton was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, officials said. St. Clair County coroner Rick Stone said the wound appeared to have been a close-contact one.
Witnesses told investigators two men -- one armed with a gun -- were seen driving away from the area, the Post-Dispatch said. Police said they arrested one suspect several hours later.
East St. Louis, Ill., Mayor Alvin Parks, a friend of Thornton, called Thornton a "good family man" adding his slaying had "shocked" the area along the Illinois-Missouri border, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat online newspaper reported.
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