Teen gunman took own life, officials say

Jacob D. Robida ended the crime spree that started in a New Bedford bar by shooting himself in the head on a rural Arkansas road when he was surrounded by police, officials said yesterday.

Authorities had initially reported that police in Norfork, Ark., shot Robida on Saturday after a 16-mile chase that started when he shot and killed a police officer in Gassville. But forensic tests found the fatal bullet came from the 9mm Ruger handgun that Robida also used to kill his female passenger, said Bristol District Attorney Paul F. Walsh Jr.

''He shot himself," said Walsh. The ballistic evidence ''confirms our earlier suspicions that he was planning not to get out of this alive, and to take down whoever was around him."

Massachusetts State Trooper Paul Dockrey, who is assigned to Walsh's office and is in Arkansas investigating the case, said that investigators are trying to learn if the deaths were part of a suicide pact between Robida, 18, and his passenger, Jennifer Rena Bailey, 33. They once lived together in West Virginia and were seen hugging several times in the car after he shot Officer James Sell to death near a motel in Gassville.

When cornered by police after the ensuing chase, Robida first tried to shoot at the officers through the windshield of his car. That failed and he took the gun, put it against Bailey's head and pulled the trigger, Dockrey said. She slumped in the front seat, and police started shooting at Robida. Just then, Robida put the gun to his own head, and later died at a Springfield, Mo., hospital.

''There's no doubt it is a murder-suicide," Dockrey said. ''What we're trying to backtrack is if she was aware that this was going to be the end of the road."

Walsh provided new details yesterday about Robida's hurried journey from New Bedford -- where officials say he attacked three patrons of Puzzles Lounge, a gay bar, with a hatchet and the same 9mm pistol early Thursday -- to the Ozark Mountains about 1,500 miles away, where his escape ended in the shootout with police Saturday afternoon.

Around 9:30 a.m. Thursday, Walsh said, Robida sought medical attention at a Burlington County, N.J., hospital for a head laceration suffered during the attack in the bar. Walsh said Robida claimed he was homeless and gave a fake name. Later, the person who treated Robida saw a news broadcast and notified authorities.

Thursday night, Robida showed up at Bailey's apartment in Charleston, W.Va., Walsh said. He said Robida left Bailey's apartment and Bailey called a friend and left a voice mail. ''She called her friend and said, 'He wants to stay here. I just saw him on the news, he committed a murder and I don't want him staying here.' "

Yet, sometime on Friday, Bailey left her three young sons with her mother and said she was going out to celebrate her birthday, which had taken place one week earlier, the district attorney said. Later that day in West Virginia, Bailey withdrew $500 from an ATM and was captured on a store video surveillance camera purchasing groceries with Robida, he said.

Walsh said he has not yet concluded whether Bailey was coerced or a willing participant, although her actions suggest she chose to go with Robida. ''None of these things are classic symptoms of kidnap victims," he said.

Walsh cautioned, however, that Robida could have threatened Bailey and her family if she did not cooperate. ''We don't know if she was doing that under duress," he said.

In West Virginia yesterday, Bailey's father, Ronnie Dunlap, said that his daughter would not have voluntarily left her three young children to accompany Robida.

''We're pretty well sure she was abducted," he said, in his first public comments since his daughter was killed. ''Me and her mother both know that and the evidence will show that."

Dunlap, 54, said the family has been upset by the suggestion that Bailey may have willingly gone with Robida. ''They've got it backwards, like she was leaving with him and making arrangements to go, and it's just a lie," Dunlap said in an interview at his home in the rural town of Tornado, where his trailer is tucked below a steep wooded hillside on a winding country road.

He said he last talked to his daughter on Wednesday and she gave no indication that she was leaving town. Her three sons stayed with their father during the week, said Dunlap, and visited Bailey on weekends. She was looking forward to seeing them on Saturday, he said.

Bailey's father said his daughter did not tell her mother she was leaving on a trip.

Dunlap said he met Robida once or twice and ''didn't like his looks." He said his daughter had broken off the relationship.

A photograph of Bailey hung on the wall of her father's trailer in a frame decorated with the words ''My baby girl." A photo of Bailey's three sons hung above it.

''I've been having a rough time," said Dunlap, his eyes filling with tears. ''She was my only child and I loved her a great deal."

Walsh said Robida apparently financed his cross-country run with some $350 he had been paid by a relative a week before the bar attack. Police found $187 on him after he died, the district attorney said.

He said Arkansas authorities are still processing Robida's car, but so far have not found a suicide note or other writings that would explain the burst of violence by Robida, who had a swastika tattooed on his hand and who told friends how he hated Jews and African-Americans, yet was known to have friends who are gay.

Police did find a 20-gauge shotgun and a .222-caliber rifle in the trunk, which they believe were taken in a break-in in West Virginia, Dockrey said. They also found cans of soda, pouches of instant soup, small bags of chips, a loaf of bread, and two lightly packed bags. Robida's black suitcase contained a couple of pairs of jeans and sweatshirts, mostly black. He said Bailey had a bottle of shampoo in her backpack.

They did not appear to have packed for a long trip, Dockrey said. ''It wasn't like, 'We're going for a long stay.' "

He said the police also found a scrap of paper with a Massachusetts cellphone number on it, but they did not know whose number it is.

Massachusetts State Police have a computer specialist combing through Robida's home computer, but have yet to read through his e-mails, Dockrey said.

He said that although there is no indication of a broader conspiracy or that any of Robida's friends knew he was planning to commit any of his crimes, police are investigating whether anyone in Massachusetts knew of his plans to leave New Bedford.

Walsh said that after the gay bar attack, Robida went to his home on County Street in New Bedford, where he washed up and left a handwritten note for his mother, Stephanie Oliver.

He said police found the note before Oliver and that she never saw it.

In the note, Robida told his mother that he loved her. He also wrote, ''I had to go out by my means."

''She wanted to know about the note, so I had to read it to her," said Walsh. ''She's a nice woman who just had no grasp on what was going on with her son, his computer, and his room."

Walsh said it remains unclear what triggered Robida's crime spree, but he said he hopes to release a report next week providing as much information about the events and Robida that investigators have been able to uncover.

''Some things we are never going to know," he said.

John R. Ellement and Lisa Wangsness of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Sacchetti reported from Little Rock, Ark., and Russell from Tornado, W.Va.