Was advised by dispatch tonight that an officer in the northern part of the state was lost. RIP brother.
www.cnn.com/2006/US/02/04/robida.arrest.ap/NORFORK, Arkansas (AP) -- A teenager suspected of a hatchet and gun attack in a Massachusetts gay bar was captured here Saturday after a rural police officer was gunned down and a female passenger of the teen killed in a shootout with police several minutes later, state police said.
Jacob D. Robida was wounded in the shootout and taken to a Springfield, Missouri, hospital, according to state police spokesman Bill Sadler.
After police Officer Jim Sell, 56, was shot to death in the northern Arkansas town of Gassville, a witness told police a green Pontiac with Kentucky license plates left the scene, Sadler said.
Troopers laid down spike strips on Arkansas 201 to puncture the tires, but the car didn't stop.
About 15 miles from Gassville, gunfire was exchanged with police in Norfork, where the 18-year-old was wounded and a female passenger was killed, Sadler said. He did not know the name of the passenger or her relationship with Robida.
Investigators had searched for Robida since Thursday's attack at a bar in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Three men were wounded, one critically, with a hatchet and a gun.
The hatchet used in the attack was found outside the bar, but detectives believed Robida still had the gun.
Robida was a high school dropout who friends say glorified Naziism but never expressed any specific prejudice against gays.
"This is insane," said Heather Volton, 22, of Fall River, Massachusetts, who had known Robida for more than a year. "That kid never so much as raised his voice at me ... This is all pretty much a shock to me, like everyone else."
Latest reports say that the perp was shot twice in the head during the shootout. Perp died this morning at the hospital. I'm sure there's a special place in hell for Robida.