Suspect in gay bar attack dies after shootout

updated 12:56 p.m. ET Feb. 5, 2006

GASSVILLE, Ark. - A teenager wanted in a hatchet-and-gun attack on patrons of a Massachusetts gay bar died Sunday morning at a Missouri hospital after he was critically wounded in a gun battle with Arkansas police, authorities said.

Jacob D. Robida, 18, died at 3:38 a.m. Sunday at Cox-South Hospital in Springfield, Mo., Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler said. Robida was injured after he shot and killed a small-town police officer in Gassville on Saturday.

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

After Thursday’s hatchet-and-gun attack at Puzzles Lounge in New Bedford, Mass., which injured three people, police said the 18-year-old fled in a green Pontiac and picked up Jennifer Rena Bailey, at her Charleston, W. Va., home.

“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 stop. The teen twice shot Sell, 56, said Massachusetts prosecutor Paul Walsh Jr.

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

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

Shootout with police
About 25 miles away, Robida drove over spike strips set out by state troopers and drove with two punctured tires into downtown Norfork. Robida’s car then careened 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.

NBC VIDEO 911 calls released Feb. 3: Massachusetts police release the 911 calls from a rampage at a gay bar. WHDH-TV Steve Cooper reports. MSNBC

The teen shot the woman in the car with him 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.

Robida was taken to a Springfield, Mo., hospital, according to Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler.

One victim of the Massachusetts attack — which police have called a hate crime — said he was “elated” the teen had been apprehended.

“Right now I’d like him to be able to regain consciousness and answer some questions,” said Bob Perry, who 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.

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