Posted on 04/08/2005 6:56:00 AM PDT by You Dirty Rats
CANTON, Texas -- The father of a high school football player shot and wounded the team's coach Thursday, then fled in a truck loaded with weapons and tried to kill himself by slashing his wrists, authorities said.
Jeffrey Doyle Robertson, 45, went to the school just after classes started and shot coach Gary Joe Kinne in the chest, apparently with a .45-caliber pistol, police said.
The coach, who also is the school's athletic director, was in critical condition Friday at Trinity Mother Frances Health System in Tyler, said Lisa Morgan, the hospital's clinical coordinator.
Robertson's pickup was found about two hours later abandoned on a rural road next to a golf course a few miles outside town. Robertson was later found in the woods with self-inflicted wounds, including cuts to his wrists and a punctured thigh, authorities said. He had two guns and a pocket knife with him, Canton Police Chief Mike Echols said.
Television footage showed Robertson being carried to an ambulance on a stretcher. A balding man with a goatee, Robertson has a tattoo on his arm of cartoon character Yosemite Sam brandishing two guns and the words "Born to Raise Hell."
Robertson was treated at a hospital, then transported to a jail to await charges, authorities said.
Robertson was scheduled to be arraigned Friday morning.
Echols said Robertson had been barred from Canton High and told not to attend football games after several confrontations. One was at the annual football picnic, where he was accused of "shoving and verbally abusing" coaches, authorities said.
Police were investigating a possible motive. On Wednesday, Robertson's son, Baron, had apparently been banned from playing all school athletics, said Steve Smith Jr., a senior who was a defensive end and kicker on the team.
Smith's father described Robertson as "a very high-strung, hot-tempered individual" who threatened Smith Jr. last year -- grabbing his shirt and pushing him up against a fence -- over an on-field teasing. He said Baron Robertson, then a freshman, was walking off the field when some older students "razzed" him.
"This guy blew up," Steve Smith Sr. said. "He thought some kids were picking on his son. My son wasn't even the one who said anything. But he threatened to kill him."
Smith said he complained to the school and police, but Robertson was never charged.
Echols and Canton school district Superintendent Larry Davis said they were unaware of any previous threats.
Some parents had been upset that Kinne had made his own son the starting quarterback as a freshman, Smith Sr. said. G.J. Kinne was the AP 3A all-state honorable mention quarterback last season.
Rhonda Miller, a cousin of Robertson's wife, was among the relatives gathered outside the jail Thursday night to help support Robertson's wife and son.
Miller said she didn't want Robertson portrayed as "a lunatic" because he wasn't the only one frustrated with the school's athletic program.
"A lot of parents are upset. This is not a single incident, and if they don't take care of it, it could escalate," she said, declining to elaborate.
Robertson worked for six years for Dallas Plumbing Co., leaving in 2002 to start his own business with another man. Company President John Downs described Robertson as a good employee and a devoted father who enjoyed taking his son hunting and fishing.
The last time Downs saw Robertson was about six months ago, when Robertson had a broken leg, bruises and abrasions from a road-rage-related fight on the side of a highway, he said.
"The last conversation that I had with him was that he really needed to learn how to control his temper or he was going to get hurt worse than that," Downs said.
Echols said officers found no hit list on Robertson, but added, "We had heard there were certain people he named off that he wanted" to harm.
Canton is a town of about 3,500 some 60 miles east of Dallas.
Okay, there's a remedy to this... NO FOOTBALL THIS FALL! Forfeit every game the h.s. plays. I realize that this is mass punishment, but it works in the military when emotional people are out of control and, according to the story, there were MORE than just ROBERTSON who were crazy about their football--besides, it is just a game; that is unless the Hokies of Va. Tech are playing!
There are however parents at our school that are like this moron and act as if football is more important than anything else
There are parents like that EVERYWHERE. We lived in San Marino when our kids were in elementary school, near LA. There are parents like that everywhere and it isn't just football. They got ballistic over a low grade, or little Johnny being left out of the school play, etc.
It isn't just football. It is wierdo parents. It is trigger happy people. The shootings at other schools didn't have to do with sports.
Hopefully you never had to dodge any bullets from an irate mom whose daughter didn't make the squad.
We haven't had a pro football team in Ohio for years either. Well, that's not quite true; we get pro teams in to play the Browns and Bengals several times a year.
I know it isn't all of y'all. After the deaths of the Pope and Schiavo I think we need a few laughs on Friday threads.
But y'all are crazy about football. We in Ohio like to think we love football; in Texas, though, football is King.
this guy was a COWARD. If he can use a gun on another person why did he slash his wrists?
Any politician or football administrator who proposed this would be shot.
No football? Ask any SMU alum how they felt when the NCAA gave that program the death penalty. Try taking football away from the Longhorns or Texas Tech or, God Forbid, Texas A&M.
Taking football away from a Texan is like taking away their guns. It's not a job I'd ever want!!!
I hated this story. I shows the true ignorance that surrounds the "game". It overshadows what good points that exist. It also does not touch the "recruiting" practices that these big schools particiapte in.
Besides the story is inaccurate. Permian played Carter in the semi-finals and not the finals. Carter was later stripped of their title for illegal players, couldn't happened to a nicer bunch of poor sportmen. They deserved to lose, only wish it had been at the hands of a team that kicked their arses, but since they were cheating nobody beat them. Permian won state the next year.
Cause you're a p*ssy. Women slash their wrists. Men put a 12 gauge in their mouth.
The remedy starts in the fan base. As long as their are fanatic fans and people spending money on false worship of these athletes it will only get worse.
We have our share of crazies up here. I saw a guy drink something out of a Zerex anti-freeze bottle at a Browns game years ago. I saw another idiot punch a cop in the face in the Dog Pound (not very smart -- I'm sure the cops paid him back w/ interest for that!) Just this past season I asked security to throw a drunken nut out of a Browns game (and they did -- he was totally out of control).
My issue here is I would have gotten my kid. Lockdown or not, he/she is safer with me than with any school official. Period. I always carry.
Not letting your child out is equivalent to false imprisonment. There is no statute that says they can keep your kid if you want him/her. School is once again overstepping them bounds once the suspect left ther property. Fear of his return or not parents wanting their children get them.
Have too:
Exactly. I was looking for that article where they said it was an AK-47....But it seems to have vanished.
is the the "x"fl?
I like to watch a game as much as anyone when I have time, but with out of sight salaries, the character of the athletes, sponsorship run amuck, and the fact that sports is on 24/7 it could disappear tomorrow and I would not miss it.
I quit watching baseball after the first stike and haven't been or seen one since. I hate basketball, nothing but 5 one on one games with no good officiating. The only sport I watch is football and only if my kids are playing or to watch with them to "bond". They only will watch 1 or 2 teams as they are tired of the hype as well and watch for a certain set of players they like.
The story line is true and that is the saddest part of all. To paraphrase Charlie from Top Gun in the debriefing room, "I think we are showing this movie as how not to do things."
Here it is http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,152756,00.html
"Gary Joe Kinne, who is also the Canton High School athletic director, was shot in the school's field house with an AK-47 rifle, according to the state's Homeland Security office. "
And,
"'The Sheriff's Department, DPS and Texas Rangers are all out here, but I haven't seen anything," said Justin Hill, who works at the Garden Valley Golf Course's pro shop in Lindale. "No one's running around here with an AK-47.'"
Maybe it's because he didn't have one.....I guess when news is breaking you are free to print ANYTHING you want.
Ohio State
I went to college in Ohio, and I'll simply state that Texas and Ohio are certainly at the same level of insanity when it comes to football.
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