News
2006-02-10
Investigators
want to talk to supremacists about Robida
Investigators
tracking hour-by-hour movements of a teenager after a
hatchet-and-gun attack in a Massachusetts gay bar are
Investigators
tracking hour-by-hour movements of a teenager after a
hatchet-and-gun attack in a Massachusetts gay bar are
looking into whether he was heading to Arkansas to
meet up with white supremacists, a source close to the
investigation said Wednesday.
Jacob Robida, 18, shot and killed himself after
a police chase ended Saturday in Norfork, Ark. Moments
earlier, Robida shot and killed Gassville police
officer Jim Sell, 63, after a traffic stop. As police
closed in at Norfork, Robida also shot and killed a female
acquaintance who had been riding with him, Jennifer
Rena Bailey, 33, of Charleston, W.Va.
Using information from credit card receipts,
investigators are developing a time line of Robida's
movements after the February 2 attack at the Puzzles
Lounge in New Bedford, Mass., said an Arkansas police
official speaking on condition of anonymity. "Our
people want to know, for intelligence purposes only,
if there was something leading him to one of at least
two organizations" in northern Arkansas, said the source,
who was unable to comment publicly because police
supervisors have ordered silence.
Robida did not take a meandering course while
traveling from Massachusetts to Arkansas, the source
said. "He was driving like he knew where he was
going," the source said.
Investigators planned to talk to members of the
organizations and may have done so already, the source
said. White supremacists and similar groups can be
found in certain pockets of rural Arkansas.
Meanwhile, a West Virginia television station
reported Wednesday that Bailey's father had reported
two guns stolen from his home at the same time his
daughter was reported missing and Robida was traveling
toward Arkansas. West Virginia state police said
Robida may have stolen the guns, WOWK-TV in Huntington reported.
"Two firearms were reported stolen as a part of
that burglary at this time; we believe they may
possibly have been taken by Robida to Arkansas," said
Sgt. T.C. Bledsoe of the West Virginia state police.
Weapons taken were a .20-gauge shotgun and a .22-caliber
rifle. "We believe those to be his firearms," Bledsoe
said. Investigators would need to check the guns'
serial numbers to verify that the guns belonged to
Bailey's father.
The Arkansas source said Robida had a handgun
and two long guns in his possession when the car was
stopped after a 20-mile chase Saturday in Baxter
County. Police had searched for Robida since early February
2, when, they say, he used a hatchet and handgun to
wound three men at Puzzles. Investigators plan to
review surveillance tapes from places where Robida and
Bailey stopped between West Virginia and Arkansas for
clues as to whether Bailey was abducted or went
willingly. (AP)
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