Gay bar attack suspect dies after capture
Noah Trister, Associated Press
published Sunday, February 5, 2006

GASSVILLE, Ark. -- The teenager suspected of a hatchet-and-gun attack in a Massachusetts gay bar and in the killing of two people in Arkansas, including a policeman, died Sunday of wounds suffered in a gun battle with officers, authorities said.

Jacob D. Robida, 18, died at 3:38 a.m. Sunday at Cox-South Hospital in Springfield, Mo., said hospital spokesman Randy Berger.

Robida, a high school dropout who friends said glorified Naziism, was shot twice in the head in a shootout with police Saturday after he killed a Gassville police officer and a woman in his car, authorities said.

Two days earlier, he allegedly went on a rampage at the Puzzles Lounge in New Bedford, Mass., that injured three men, one critically. Police labeled that attack a hate crime.

"I wish he would have lived and gone on trial," said Dan Sheterom, 51, who lives above Puzzles Lounge and frequents the tavern. "I would have liked to have seen if the commonwealth here would have taken it up to the federal government as a hate crime."

After Thursday's attack, police say Robida drove off and picked up 33-year-old Jennifer Rena Bailey at her home in Charleston, W.Va.

"Apparently she's had a prior relationship with this guy and had been corresponding with him," said West Virginia State Police Sgt. C.J. Ellyson.

They were driving through the northern Arkansas town of Gassville when Officer Jim Sell pulled them over for a traffic violation Saturday. Sell, 56, was shot twice, said Bristol, Mass., District Attorney Paul Walsh Jr.

Witness Maryann Hoyne said she saw the officer's squad car sitting bumper to bumper with Robida's car, and heard three gunshots. She saw Sell on the ground as Robida got back into his car and drove off, she said.

Robida returned a moment later to retrieve his gun, which he had left beside the officer, said Hoyne, manager of the Brass Door Motel in Gassville.

About 25 miles away, Robida drove over spike strips set out by state troopers and continued driving with two punctured tires into downtown Norfork, where he smashed into several parked vehicles to avoid a police barricade.

"When he wrecked he started firing at our officer and a state police officer, and the officers returned fire," said Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery.

The teen shot Bailey before he was wounded in the shootout with police, Walsh said. State police wouldn't confirm Walsh's account and said ballistics tests would determine how the woman died.

One victim of the Massachusetts attack said he was "elated" the teen had been stopped. Bob Perry was released from a Boston hospital Friday. He had a black eye, a five-inch gash on his right cheek and a bullet hole in his back.

Another victim remained hospitalized, and officials would not disclose the location of the third.

Before Robida's death, Massachusetts police had said he would be charged with attempted murder, assault and civil rights violations in the attack. In Arkansas, killing a police officer is punishable by death.

Robida's friends said he had, at times, glorified Nazism and bore a swastika tattoo, but had not previously expressed prejudice toward homosexuals.

Rep. Barney Frank, the openly gay congressman whose district includes New Bedford, said the community has a history of tolerance.

"This is not some general problem with the people of New Bedford," Frank said. "This is one disturbed 18-year-old."

Associated Press writers Ray Henry in New Bedford, Mass.; John Raby in Charleston, W.Va.; and Tom Parsons in Little Rock contributed to this report.

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Discuss.

Whoa....All I got to say is WHOA..
Wait...we still have nazis?

Yes we still have Nazis, those silly people who hate those who are not like them.

That hatred is called "Human Nature". It takes no effort to hate; it takes real effort to not hate.

I disagree. I'm human, I don't hate anyone. I am sure I could list many people I dislike, but hate is a very strong word. There is no one I would not help if they were sincere and in need, I think.

While this is a disgusting crime... is it any worse than a serial killer who targets women?

It's shocking that someone could be so ignorant and misled to target attacks of any kind upon a segment of the population, but the way in which it is dealt with demonstrates the community's level of tolerance, fairness and moral character. Not so much the actions of the disturbed individual.

I'm not sure the 'gay' part is particularly significant, in other words.

There's a little hitler in all of us

There's two types of assaults, according to the Law. One deals with the precise or ambiguous attacks made on an individual on random or at an accounted time. The second deals with a precise intention against a given group. At this "boy's" myspace, his friends are glorifying this assault.

According to Hate Crime Legislature passed in 1997/1998, after the Matthew Shepard murder, a hate crime is "any attacks made against an individual out of hate and/or malevolence because of a given trait shared by a large group". Pure and simple. This was a Hate Crime. A HATE crime. The boy walked into a gay bar, knowing full well it was a gay bar, with a maschette (long knife weapon ((spelling?)) ) and a gun and began to cut and shoot people.

Hate is a condition that is not given by nature. According to Sociologists and Social Conditionists, "hate is a viewpoint taught and/or conditioned upon an individual by religious, social, familial, ethnical up-bringings." This also includes the other emotions we experience. While some emotions are natural, notice how the other trophic and other animal kingdoms do not share the prescribed emotion of hatred.

Naziism is one of the most prejudiced and discriminatory philosophies in the world today. It believes women are second to primal and carnal beasts, believes black people or African Americans should be hunted down and killed because of their skin color, and believes gays and lesbians should also be killed because they are corrupt and unnatural.

So tell me. A crime is simply a crime? Ask any lawyer/attorney/judge or studee of law. This crime was and is a hate crime.

The mere fact that this story was only reported in 30 newspapers, out of the 170,000 newspapers that are published in the United States, not including smaller tabloids, magazines, tributes, and presses, shows a great abundance of apathy. Apathy kills, ladies and gentlemen.

Its our generation and those coming after us to stop this sort of behavior dead in its tracks. A crime against a group is still a crime. And when it comes from hate, that should be where we start seeing red flags springing up like weeds around us. Its our duty and our right as the upcoming generation to put a stop to this and abolish apathy and this sort of behavior. If we don't, then the cycle will just continue growing and growing and growing.

I'm not sure where you got the "only 30 newspapers" covered this story. Just do a search on Google News. It was all over the Evening news on Friday/Saturday. So I really don't think the media tried to bury it. Granted, I live in Massachusetts, where this turned up, but I think it got enough national attention.

As horrible as this crime was, I really take a grim view of legislating thought, which in my mind is what "hate crime" legislation has done. The Wikipedia article explains under oppositions why I dislike that. I believe in true equal protection under the law--hate crime bring inequality to crimes. I don't think the fact that this guy hated homosexuals really affects the fact that he attacked a bunch of people. I think if any bar got attacked like that, it would be horrible. It should not be "more horrible" because the person was prejudiced.

Yes, sometimes motive is considered as well as intent in crimes like Murder, but to me this is a slippery slope problem. For instance, why I totally agree that Nazism was perhaps one of the true evils of the world, I also dislike the censorship some Europeans use, such as trying to censor anything that shows a Nazi symbol, including works of fiction or things like historical wargames. I think that's just trying to cover up one evil with another one.

The crime should be horrible because people got hurt and killed, not because of who or what they were.

I don't understand why he shot the girl he was with. It's like...

"Yeah I'm shooting at the cops, bang-bang!"

and then,

"I'ma shoot my girlfriend real quick, BLAM!"

"K back to the cops now, bang-bang!"

Wtf? I think the cops shot her because they hate women.

Women-haters.

(<3 women)

Probably she said something about wtf was he doing shooting cops, and as she was an easier target he shooted her to release anger.
Or tried to leave the car, yelled, etc... or that kind of things people do when near a maniatical murderer with a gun.

Saying that cops hate woman is a bit of a gross generalization isn't it?

I'm guessing he was being sarcastic to prove a point. Unless I'm wrong, and he was just being a twit.

Probably shot her out of spite. After all, it's not like he ever did anything else that was crazy or unjustified. Oh wait..

I always thought that Hate Crimes were ment to prosecute events that otherwise would not be so bad, or are just non-violent.

Its not too much of a crime to burn a bag of dog poop on a person's doorstep.. Change that dog poop into a cross, and you have yourself a hate crime. BIG difference.

Spray paint a political message on the side of a building and you don't really have a crime at all, spraypaint a swatzika on a Jewish tombstone, and you have a hate Crime.

Smash the window of a bar where people are drinking, and you owe some money, but smash the window of a gay bar and yell some nasty name, and you have a Hate Crime...

To me, thats why Hate Crimes are needed, because not all acts actually mean the same thing.