Breaking News: Texas High School Football Coach Shot at School
Source Associated Press
CANTON, Texas -- The father of a high school football player shot and wounded the team's coach on campus Thursday and fled in a pickup loaded with weapons, claiming to have a hit list, state officials said.
Schools in the district were locked down while police searched for the shooter. Officers had weapons drawn near a truck that was found about two hours after the shooting and apparently belonged to suspect Jeffrey Doyle Robertson.
Police were investigating a possible motive for Robertson, 46. Authorities have received reports that he and Canton High School coach Gary Joe Kinne had an ''altercation'' after Kinne took over the football program in 2003, said Texas Department of Public Safety officer Jasmine Andresen.
The Governor's Office of Homeland Security said Robertson fired an AK-47 at Kinne at the school's field house before driving off. Robertson had said he had a hit list and would not be taken alive, spokeswoman Sophie Yanez said.
Kinne, who is also Canton High's athletic director, was airlifted to a hospital in nearby Tyler, Tyler Police spokesman Don Martin told The Tyler Morning Telegraph. Authorities declined to release information on Kinne's condition.
Television footage showed officers with weapons drawn and police cars parked behind the truck near a golf course off Interstate 20 between Tyler and Canton. It was not clear whether anyone was in the truck.
A local restaurant cashier said Robertson had a reputation in Canton, about 60 miles east of Dallas.
''I wouldn't say he was respected. But he was well-known,'' said Sister's Cafe cashier Diane Price, who said she has known Robertson for 37 years because he attended high school with her daughter.