CANTON, Texas — The father of ahigh school football player shot and wounded the coach with an assault rifleThursday and fled in a pickup loaded with weapons, authorities said.
The suspect, Jeffrey DoyleRobertson, 45, was carried out of the woods on a stretcher a few hours later,after his truck was found abandoned near a golf course outside Canton. Hiscondition was not immediately disclosed.
Police were trying to establishthe motive for the shooting of Canton High coach Gary Joe Kinne.
But those who knew Robertsonsaid he had a bad temper. And Police Chief Mike Echols said Robertson had beenbanned from campus and told not to attend school functions. Robertson had hadconfrontations with some of the coaches, including Kinne, whose son was thequarterback, authorities said.
According to one parent,Robertson had complained last year that his son was being picked on by histeammates.
Kinne was shot with an AK-47rifle in the chest at the school’s field house, officials said. He wasairlifted to a hospital in nearby Tyler; his condition was not immediatelyreleased.
The state Homeland SecurityOffice said it received reports that Robertson had a hit list. Authoritiesdeclined to say whether any list was found.
An athlete’s father, SteveSmith, said Robertson had threatened to kill Smith’s son last year over anon-field teasing.
“He’s a very high-strung,hot-tempered individual,” said Smith, a business owner in Canton, about 60miles east of Dallas.
Smith told the Tyler MorningTelegraph that Robertson’s son, then a freshman football player, was walkingoff the field when some older students “razzed” him.
“This guy blew up,” Smith said.”He thought some kids were picking on his son. My son wasn’t even the one whosaid anything. But he threatened to kill him.”
Smith said he complained to theschool and police. Robertson was never charged.
Robertson worked for DallasPlumbing Co. for six years, leaving in 2002 to start his own business with apartner, company President John Downs said.
Downs described Robertson as agood air-conditioning project manager and a devoted father who enjoyed takinghis son hunting and fishing. But Downs said he heard about Robertson gettinginto fights in his hometown.
“He just seemed to be a goodperson, other than this temper that he had, which we never personally saw,”Downs said.
When Downs last saw Robertson,about six months ago, he said Robertson had a broken leg, bruises and scrapesfrom a road-rage fight on the side of a highway.
“The last conversation that Ihad with him was that he really needed to learn how to control his temper or hewas going to get hurt worse than that, but it didn’t work,” Downs said.
Associated Press writersAnabelle Garay and Bobby Ross Jr. in Dallas contributed to this report.
