The Face of Hate – So Young – UPDATED

Not to put a downer on your weekend guys, but violent assaults, such as what happened in New Bedford, Mass. on Feb. 2nd, need to be addressed, spoken about, and worked through.
As we all know – and sometimes so easily forget – the safety of our community is always at risk. We need to stay alert, play it safe, and protect one another – each and every chance we get.
The attacker was only 18 – so damn young and so very senseless – and he’s still on the run.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to all the injured and suffering, as well as their family and friends. May justice prevail in the end.
UPDATE:
Man Held in Bar Attack Dies After Shootout
By Noah Trister, Associated Press Writer
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.

Hundreds Attend Vigil for Gay Assault Victims
by Peter Cassels
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — According to the New Bedford Police Department, the male who walked into Puzzles Lounge, a gay bar, just after midnight Feb. 2 and opened fire on the patrons there is Jacob D. Robida of New Bedford. A manhunt is currently under way to find Robida, and a vigil attended by several hundred people was held last night outside Puzzles.
Organized by the Marriage Equality Coalition of the South Coast, the vigil featured such speakers as the Puzzles bartender who witnessed the assaults; the mayor of New Bedford, and a city councilor who read a message from openly gay Congressman Barney Frank, whose district includes the city. Many of New Bedford’s other elected officials also attended.
“Obviously, we have a man who’s dangerous, who’s not rational, and he has weapons,” said Bristol County District Attorney Paul Walsh, Jr. earlier in the day.
The police received a call shortly after midnight on Feb. 2, referring to a “fight” at the bar. Preliminary reports indicated that Robida, age 18, entered the bar and asked the bartender if Puzzles was a gay bar. The bartender informed Robida that it was. After a short time, the suspect reached into his coat, pulled out a “bladed instrument” and struck the patron next to him. Then he pulled out a gun, fired several shots, and fled the scene.
Emergency personnel arrived on scene and started to treat the injured, the police said. One male suffered several deep lacerations to his head, while two other victims were shot in the torso area. One male was flown to a Boston hospital while the other two were transported to St. Luke’s Hospital. Later, a second male was also Med- Flighted to Boston.
The investigation is still on going and evidence has been recovered from the scene, according to the police.
Police say Robida is white, approximately 5-feet 6 inches tall, weighing 200 pounds, with dark hair and a light complexion.
“We have information that this individual has extreme violent tendencies,” the police statement said.
Robida was last seen driving a 1999 green Pontiac Grand-Am with Massachusetts plates 85E-C58.
“This individual should be considered armed and dangerous,” the police news release stated. “We also believe that he also may have suffered some injuries that may require medical attention.”
The Associated Press reported that according to an arrest warrant for Robida issued by New Bedford police the attacker was wearing all black and that he left behind a hatchet and a machete.
According to the police affidavit, officers went to Robida’s home and spoke to his mother, Stephanie Oliver. She said her son came home around 1 a.m. bleeding from the head, then left again.
The officers went to his bedroom and found what they described as “Nazi regalia” and anti-Semitic writings on the wall, according to the affidavit.
Oliver declined to comment to the AP through a family friend who answered the door at their home.
Two of the injured people were taken to Boston hospitals and a third was taken to St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford. They were identified by police as Robert Perry of Dartmouth, Alex Taylor of Fairhaven, and Luis Rosado of New Bedford. Their conditions were unknown.
The bartender at Puzzles Lounge told The Associated Press the assailant walked in around midnight and drank a rum on the rocks. He ordered another and walked to the back of the bar, where two men were playing pool.
The attacker shoved one of the men to the ground, then pulled a hatchet from his sweat shirt and began swinging it at the man’s head, said the bartender, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Phillip, because of concerns about his own safety while the gunman is at large.
The second pool player intervened, swinging at the assailant with his pool cue, but the attacker fended him off, the bartender said.
Several other patrons tried to stop him, and he was knocked off his feet, sending the hatchet flying, Phillip said.
The attacker then pulled out the handgun and shot one man, according to the bartender. He fired another bullet into the chest of a patron who was leaving the bathroom.
“He was shooting at everyone,” Phillip said.
The attacker shoved the bartender before leaving the building and running up the street, he said.
Police arrived moments later, finding the hatchet on the barroom floor and a knife lying on the ground outside, though it was apparently never used in the attack.
Court documents said a woman in the bar recognized Robida as a current or former student at New Bedford High School. School officials declined to confirm whether Robida was enrolled there.
He was also known to New Bedford police because he graduated in 2001 from the city’s Junior Police Academy, according to acting Police Chief David Provencher. The “boot camp’’ program is designed to teach discipline to 12- to 14-year-olds, many of whom are referred by juvenile courts or social services agencies.
“We are looking into the possibility that this was a hate crime and that the hate-crime law with additional penalties would kick in,” Bristol County District Attorney Walsh said at a news conference at police headquarters shortly after noon Feb. 2.
Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese said the afternoon of Feb. 2 that the incident is an “enraging reminder of the need to pass a federal hate-crimes law.”
“When a man walks into a bar, asks if it’s a gay bar and starts shooting, there couldn’t be any more glaringly obvious and enraging example that we need uniform hate crimes law and that Congress has stubbornly failed to act. The Senate can change this today. Whether the hate crime occurs in New Bedford, Massachusetts, or Roanoke, Virginia, local law enforcement deserve access to the same tools. The Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act would do this.
“I am infuriated and deeply saddened. Our hearts are with the families and friends of those wounded in this tragic hate crime,” added Solmonese. “This harrowing crime is a sobering and shocking reminder of the way anti-gay prejudice manifests to violence and that we need to deal with this as a country.
“We are thankful that the local authorities are investigating this as a hate crime.”
Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, in a statement issued Thursday evening, blamed the religious right for creating an atmosphere that encourages such crimes: “The hatred and loathing fueling this morning’s vicious attack on gay men in New Bedford is not innate, it is learned. And who is teaching it? Leaders of the so-called Christian right, that’s who. Individuals like James Dobson of Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins, the Rev. Pat Robertson and their ilk are obsessed with homosexuality. …We have witnessed seven years of vicious anti-LGBT organizing in Massachusetts–and endured the hate-filled rantings of Brian Camenker of the Article 8 Alliance and Parents Rights “
Anyone with information about the incident, or about Robida’s whereabouts, are encouraged to call EDGE at 617-236-4492 or the Detective Division of New Bedford’s Police Department at 508-991-6320.
Ray Henry of The Associated Press contributed to this report.