02/02/2006
Police Identify Suspect in New Bedford Attack
Police have identified 18-year-old Jacob D. Robida of New Bedford as the suspect in the shooting at Puzzles Lounge early this morning.
"Police said the man entered the bar, ordered a drink and asked the bartender if he was in a gay bar. When told that it was, he reached into his coat and pulled out a hatchet and attacked the man next to him. As patrons attempted to restrain him, he drew a gun and fired several shots, wounding two people, police said. Two of the wounded were airlifted to a Boston hospital."
Robida fled the scene. He is still at large and was wearing a black trench coat and driving a 1999 green Pontiac Grand Am with MA license plate 85E-C58 at the time of the shooting.
(more)
Posted 12:06 PM EST by Andy in Current Affairs | Permalink
Like it?
Subscribe to FREE Towleroad daily headlines with our RSS feed!
RECENT STORIES:
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
5'll getch 10 he's dealing with his own confused sexuality...
Posted by: Mr. Bill | Feb 2, 2006 12:19:01 PM
It has been a while since I have heard of one of these senseless killings, nonetheless every single one shocks me to my core. A while ago something similar happened in Cape Town, South Africa. I thought that the tides of change was in our favour, but these brutal murders by ignorant cavemen make me believe otherwise. Optimism has become illusion that fades away like the sweet smell of another mans' scent on your pillow.
I'm not religious, but those of you who are should start praying.
Posted by: Hugo vom Habe | Feb 2, 2006 12:40:20 PM
Hardly two days after George Bush once again used free time on multiple TV networks to elevate demonizing gay men and women to a federal act of protecting "many Americans, especially parents" and "the health of our most basic institutions," we learn of another insane act of antigay violence. I was going to write "wake up to," because that's exactly what we need to do. If you think there could not possibly be a correlation, or that it doesn't affect you, just stop reading now and continue your trip on the Good Ship Lollipop.
No, I am not predicting a rash of such attacks, either by individuals or groups. I am not one of those who can envision concentration camps and ovens. But isn't what has already happened, not just last night, but for the past several months and years enough to finally get us as a community to band together as we once did and shout "No More!"? How long are we to simply soak in the warm bath of the progress we have made, while it slowly leaks away around us?
Isn't one fellow gay man or woman attacked simply because they're gay enough to enrage us? How long are we adults to ignore the continued terrorizing of gay youth in their own schools and its defense by others as "religious freedom"? How long are we to let the Administration pay lip service to adequate AIDS funding yet not pay the bills? How long are we to let individuals powerful and puny, politicos and pundits, from pulpits and pamphlets, absurdly call our relationships a threat to their own, and knock down our Constitutional rights from state to state like so many bowling pins?
How long are we going to tolerate the timorous turf tending of an impotent spray of LGBT organizations who seem more concerned about perpetuating their own individual empires, about keeping the money coming in, than about forming a coalition with a real potential for political power that will once again excite and energize the average gay man or woman into rising from their knees, from their passive acceptance of being America's last, multiracial "participatory nigger."
How long will we allow the mostly spineless "leaders" of these groups to appear on television in supposed rebuttal to the barking dogs of the antigay industry only to hear them purr and mew? How many more Matthew Shepards and Gwen Araujos? Or worse still, those who kill themselves?
The Trevor Project suicide hotline gets 1000 calls a month. EVERY HOUR AND 45 MINUTES a teenager commits suicide--untold numbers of them gay. After two years of opposition to an anti-harassment policy in his school, after two years of being called queer and faggot, Joshua Melo hung himself from a backyard tree. He was 15. Who knows if he was even gay? We do know he won't be going to "Pride" this year. He won't be sneaking looks in Borders at any of our mindless magazines that tell us all we need is a perfect body, the latest fashion fad, the newest cell phone or iPod to be happy; to dance, dance, dance on. Right next to the state-of-the-art speakers, drowning out those voices from inside us that tell us there must be more. "Give me Liberty or give me Meth!"
You wanna "feel mighty real"? Well, forget writing the White House or any of "them"-for now at least. It is time for us to heal ourselves. Of denial. Of apathy. Of accepting scraps and second-class citizenship. Action Item #1: Write every state and national gay political action group you've ever given money to or thought of giving money to [e.g., HRC, GLAAD, NGLTF] and tell them they're not getting another dime from you until they get their act together. TOGETHER. Get it? Add that you ARE sending a donation to GLSEN and LAMBDA LEGAL because they ARE actually doing something to help us where we need it most: helping protect LGBT youth and in arenas where our legal rights are directly challenged.
Action Item #2: Join me and the group Soulforce in Colorado Springs in July at their second peaceful demonstration at the gates of the Focus on the Family compound-so large it has its own zip code. This $140 MILLION dollar a year TAX-FREE group is the largest of several "factories" churning out toxic homophobia 24-7 across 116 countries! Their rabid leader is heard daily by over 200 million radio listeners. Soulforce is a religious-based group and I am a card-carrying atheist, but while sexism is the source of the fires of homophobia, religious groups like FOF keep them burning. Although I am an ancient veteran of public demonstrations, I have little faith in their contemporary effectiveness. BUT for too long we have let groups like FOF get away with spreading their vicious, violence-inducing lies about us [in 15 languages], and it is time we "speak truth to [their] power" where they live. Not that we have any chance of un-washing THEIR brains, but as a witness to the world that what they are preaching is insane and unjust and we will NOT take it anymore. How can we expect the world, the media, to take our inequality seriously if we can't show them we take it seriously ourselves? If we don't really get their attention with such direct yet peaceful action, literally carrying candles to light the darkness they have helped spread around the world. Information can be found at http://www.soulforce.org/ If you can't be their yourselves, please send them a donation.
I know that many of you have been as moved by the movie "Brokeback Mountain" as I have, and the remarkable fact that a single film has done more in a couple of months to open the hearts and minds of many nongay than the combined actions of most gay political groups in the past decade. At the same time, I have seen it awaken in gays themselves a renewed sense of our right to fully love whom we love; a belief that too many of us have allowed to be rendered passive and mute as long as we are not immediately, personally threatened; as long as we feel safe in our 21st-century versions of the closet. We cannot let that magical passion pass with the film's closing credits. Closets are still just for clothes, and some of those clothes have our blood on them, fresh blood this morning in Massachusetts, and I say, "Enough!"
Thank you for listening.
Posted by: Leland | Feb 2, 2006 1:40:52 PM
Looks like this guy might be a graduate of the New Bedford Junior Police Academy! http://www.s-t.com/daily/07-01/07-02-01/a09lo057.htm
Posted by: Matt | Feb 2, 2006 2:48:53 PM
Just thought I would point out that there seems to be NO highlighted coverage of the New Bedford shootings in the Boston Globe. I can’t find it on the front page (anywhere!), and when I enter “New Bedford” into the search box, it returns stories from Feb 2 – but none of them have to do with the shooting.
This is outrageous.
Wanna bet there would be more coverage if it happened in a straight bar?
www.boston.com/globe
Posted by: Scott | Feb 2, 2006 2:53:15 PM
Lots of details on this story here: http://www.southcoasttoday.com/cgi-bin/stnow/db.cgi?db=default&uid=default&view_records=1&ID=1#1
Posted by: Matt | Feb 2, 2006 2:57:31 PM
I grieve. Leland referred to Brokeback Mountain and its inspirational qualities. The scary thing for me, reading about this horror, is that Jack's death in the movie is an eerie presage to what happened to our friends in New Bedford.
Posted by: JT | Feb 2, 2006 3:42:03 PM
He's not hot AT ALL.
Posted by: Larry | Feb 2, 2006 4:20:20 PM
What if, tomorrow morning, his machette severed head was found impaled on a stick outside Puzzles bar?
Personally, I'd love it-
Posted by: Tiki | Feb 2, 2006 4:20:47 PM
For anyone in the New Bedford/Southcoast area, there is a vigil being held at Puzzles tonight:
A vigil, sponsored by the Marriage Equality Coalition of the SouthCoast, will be held outside Puzzles Lounge, 426 N. Front St. New Bedford at 7 p.m. tonight.
The Marriage Equality Coalition of the SouthCoast, in conjunction with other community and religious groups, is organizing the vigil to protest not just this horrendous crime, but violence of any kind in the community.
"The ongoing campaign to deny gay men and lesbians the right to marry has resulted in the portrayal of the gay community as "less than equal" by some, and has included hateful, bigoted rhetoric. When groups of people are characterized as 'second class', they then can more easily become targets of others' rage and anger," the press release said.
"We deplore violence of any kind in our community. Gay men and lesbians deserve to live their lives peacefully and securely, without being targeted solely because of their sexual orientation."
If you need directions to Puzzles, they are available at
http://www.puzzleslounge.com/ndirections.html
Posted by: woneffe | Feb 2, 2006 5:14:22 PM
Regarding the Boston Globe, I haven't seen the print edition, but this story was on the front page of Boston.com this morning, and is now in the local news section, halfway down the front page.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/02/02/police_identify_suspect_in_new_bedford_bar_attack/
Posted by: woneffe | Feb 2, 2006 5:17:33 PM
In Robida's bedroom, officers found Nazi regalia and anti-Semitic writings on the wall. -AP
Obviously he was already disturbed. I actually agree with Leland about the apathy of the gay community and its leaders in HRC, GLADD, etc. How many star studded fundraisers can one go to in a year before you realize the gay community has forgotten it's own in rural America? I don't know if this man heard the Presidents speech on television and then decided to go out and 'punish' these people as you suggest. I do know HE needs to be punished. We need to make an example out of him. I am glad to see Kennedy (one of my least favorite people) make a statement about hate crimes.
Kill this sick SOB and be done with it.
Posted by: Matthew Schooler | Feb 2, 2006 7:14:11 PM
Oh what a stupid MF is he.
Posted by: bob Hipp | Feb 2, 2006 8:51:57 PM
i found his myspace http://www.myspace.com/jakejekyll
Posted by: huff | Feb 2, 2006 10:44:59 PM
>>wearing a black trench coat and driving a 1999 green Pontiac Grand Am
Notice the earmarks of a serial killer. An 18 yr old with a trenchcoat is definitely a clue. Anyone under 40 who wears a trenchcoat is either a killer, or is being dressed by his mother.
The Pontiac.... speaks for itself.
The guy is probably a hit man, hired by Teddy Kennedy.
Posted by: Jay Croce | Feb 2, 2006 11:50:51 PM
Jay, what's your hard-on for Ted Kennedy?
Posted by: Tread | Feb 3, 2006 10:52:11 AM
>>Jay, what's your hard-on for Ted Kennedy?
It's kind of a hobby.
Most folks don't remember what he did. Even if it was an accident, people should remember the truly despicable way he acted. He gets a lot of slack for having two dead brothers, and buys a lot of loyalty because he's rich and powerful.
I just want people to remember what he really is, and not idealize him because he's such an ancient fixture in our government. He represents a lot of what I hate about politics. It's nothing personal.
Posted by: Jay Croce | Feb 3, 2006 11:27:23 AM
Sound pretty personal to me.
So I'm assuming you want to hold the same standard to Laura Bush?
Or to Rick Santorum? Etc, etc. etc…
Posted by: Tread | Feb 3, 2006 1:22:03 PM
THE REASON WHY MOST GAY MEN DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS TO OTHER GAY MEN:
These kinds of discussions have been going on for many years, with Matthew Shepard, etc., and with some people wondering what it will take for gay men to unite as a group and sort of 'watch out' for each other. It's not gonna happen. Gay men do not share a common anger towards society...because too many of us are busy brownnosing our straight peers and ignoring other gay men (so we don't look gay). This is something that no other minority group does in this country - on this scale. Gay men do this because, on the most basic level, we don't need each other. We're too independent, and since most of us don't have kids or a permanent partner, we don't have lasting ties to the community where we're around for many years and known by everyone. These are basic things that civil rights movements have done - in the 60's when the black civil rights movements gained momentum, the community looked out for each other - they needed each other because there was nobody else. They cared because they had to. There was no money. There was no day care. People had to pool their resources together to make things work. Gay men, for the most part, have no worries in this regard. We do what we want, when we want, and we - for the most part - aren't doing too bad financially. There is no reason to support each other. Men suck at being there for other men anyways, and gay men are no different.
Posted by: Andrew | Feb 3, 2006 4:30:09 PM
>>So I'm assuming you want to hold the same standard to Laura Bush?
Did Laura Bush get a girl pregnant, kill her, drive her off into the ocean, and leave her body in the water overnight before reporting it to the police?
Mary Jo had no water in her lungs when she was pulled out of the car. She didn't drown.
Do a little research. When you know more about Chappaquiddick, you won't make such naive statements.
Posted by: Jay Croce | Feb 3, 2006 7:48:03 PM