Investigator: Suspect in gay bar attack shot himself

The Baxter Bulletin & AP ^ | February 8, 2006 | Ken Maguire

[sweetliberty]

Story removed because it is from The Baxter Bulletin, a Gannett website.

Free Republic has been asked to prevent posting of any material from Gannett sites, except a title and link.

[sweetliberty]

Here's the local version, which gives a little more detail:

District Attorney: Suspect in cop killing shot himself

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

""My understanding is that no police bullets penetrated the car," Walsh said."

Nice shootin', boys.

[Brilliant]

Too damn bad he did not do it earlier.

[sweetliberty]

Yeah; before he got to Arkansas....or West Virginia, for that matter.

[montag813]

Why the hell do we have to keep hearing about the "Gay Bar Attacker"? He couldn't care less what kind of bar it was. He was a psychopath. This wasn't some kind of fag attack.

[sweetliberty]

Because he killed a cop in Arkansas...and he killed the woman who was with him. No, it isn't about what kind of bar he attacked. This kind of thing may happen all the time in some areas, but it's the first officer shot in our area in nearly 40 years.

Since we can't change the title and the AP has its priorities wrong, that's the way the headline read. I agree that it isn't a "gay" issue.

[rightwinggoth]

Cover-up? The Vince Foster solution?

[Wallace T.]

There are a number of questions in this whole sordid tale. How does an 18 year old boy from Massachusetts have a 33 year old girlfriend from West Virginia? Why would he have traveled to the Ozarks, considerably off the beaten path and not exactly known as being Yankee friendly? A car with Massachusetts plates is an uncommon sight in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. You would think that Robida should have traveled along one of the primary Interstate highways and gone to a distant city like Denver or Seattle, or even entered Canada.

My guess is that Robida was tied in with a network of white supremacists, perhaps explaining his connection with the West Virginia woman. Additionally, there are reportedly groups of white supremacists in the Ozarks and the adjacent Ouachita Mountains in Oklahoma. In the 1980s, a Missouri state trooper was killed in a gunfight with a member of one of these groups. Robida and his companion may have been looking to hide out with one of these groups.

I would also guess the Arkansas authorities were right in saying that Robida killed his girlfriend before killing himself. He may not have known that he killed the policeman, but knew that his chances of a long prison term (de facto death penalty for a white supremacist) were quite high.

[sweetliberty]

"How does an 18 year old boy from Massachusetts have a 33 year old girlfriend from West Virginia?"

I've read that they met on the internet and ended up in a relationship at one point.

"Why would he have traveled to the Ozarks, considerably off the beaten path and not exactly known as being Yankee friendly?"

He was a neo-nazi and it is pretty well known that there is a significant contingent of skinheads a couple of counties to the west of here.

What is known about his note seems to indicate that his intent was to go out this way. Just a shame he didn't go alone.