Deputies Shot at Night Watchman for Local Construction Company Last Friday
Kapel Construction is working as a subcontractor for Caltrans on Hwy 169 near the bridge. “It is very common for our contractors…to have overnight security,” Frisbie explained.
Local residents told us that Robbins had been parked near the Bridge for months watching construction equipment.
Deputies shot at Robbins for reasons that are yet unclear. A spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office earlier today said that the department wouldn’t comment but was providing a news conference tomorrow.
An earlier press release from the Sheriff’s Department stated,
The Deputy Sheriffs observed a suspicious vehicle in the roadway on Martins Ferry Bridge. The Deputies contacted the driver and solo occupant of the vehicle. He was later identified as George Robbins from Hoopa, CA. During the course of that contact an officer involved shooting occurred, wounding Robbins.
Here’s scanner recording from the incident:
Deputies struck Robbin’s Chevy Corvette multiple times with bullets. Robbins received minor injuries (according to scanner tape this included being grazed by a bullet) and was transported to the Humboldt County Jail. The Sheriff’s Office’s press release reported, “A firearm was located in the vehicle and seized as evidence.”
Robbins was booked for PC417(c)–Drawing a firearm in the presence of a peace officer. On Saturday, July 15, Robbins was released on bail.
Many residents have expressed anger with the incident. Patti McCovey, a native Yurok woman, posted what she called “An open letter to the Humboldt County Sheriffs Office” on her Facebook page. She wrote in part,
How often do you shoot white security guards while they are on duty? How often do you shoot unsuspecting non-threatening white members of the community in Eureka, Arcata, or McKinleyville? A better question is, what were you doing on the Yurok Indian Reservation at 10PM on a Friday night? Why did you shoot a non-threatening tribal member while he was doing his nightly security guard duties for a local construction company? Why were you patrolling the reservation at all? I mean, you won’t even respond to the Yurok reservation when an emergency call is made.
UPDATE Tuesday: Nightwatchman Admitted Pointing Gun at Officers, Says Sheriff Billy Honsal
Earlier Chapters:
- One Man Shot and Lacerated by Glass Near Martins Ferry Bridge, According to an Officer on the Scanner
- Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Releases Some Info About Last Night’s Officer Involved Shooting.
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Embarrassing incident, embarrassing spread pattern for a stationary target engaged from ambush.
Really time to shut CR down or atleast not be a property tax leech.
Sad scene all around…
What does CR have to do with this? Please explain.
Yes, sad scene all around. At least I can agree on that. The rest, well, just supports that you’re a troll trolling for troll-bait.
Because most of the flunkies are subsidized through that trash pit.
Um, I graduated and have a job through that so-called “trash pit”. You may want to reconsider your point of view. Just saying.
Me, too. And my son attends the Academy of the Redwoods which is on the campus.
Hey Kym, the Academy of the Redwoods is a great part of the College of the Redwoods and for all of you so-called experts about Law Enforcement, I would suggest that you change your brain (if you actually have one) and move on to another part of the World. You sure don’t belong in this part. As a ex employee of CR as a Security Officer and also work as a armed and unarmed Security Officer, I have run into people that you don’t know from one moment to the other, what they will do. You have to watch every movement and react quickly. Your life or someone else’s may be at risk and even the person that you are dealing with at the moment. Granted, they seemed to have sprayed slugs around, but, that could mean that they were trying to get out of potential line of fire. 99.9% of Law Enforcement are great people and if you don’t think so, than move to Chicago or LA. But, keep your head down low or stay hidden under the bed.
That’s a pretty unprofessional comment from someone who went to cr academy. “Change your brain” “move to Chicago”
Gives weight to it being a diploma mill.
If it’s so great it shouldn’t need property tax money to survive.
It can’t even construct a pool that holds water or keep buildings up to code.
In my opinion it’s just a different type of skimming and money laundering off property owners that couldn’t make it without a handout.
Bunch of beggers is what I see.
God, I swear, CHUMP, you are making me crazy. Could you spend just one day being positive about something?
“God, I swear, CHUMP, you are making me crazy. Could you spend just one day being positive about something?”
Kym, you are giving way to much credit and leeway to that person. Plain and simple, they are a troll, admittedly, and are only here for their own amusement. You’ve allowed and encouraged their nonsense and it’s polluting the comments section beyond simple amusement.
Please ban. It’s now posting on every thread, often multiple posts, and it’s spawned several fans/supporters and mimics.
i.e. It’s becoming the chump’s blog moreso than it is the redheaded blackbelt’s blog.
The nonsense diminishes and derails sensible discussion.
Hey brain-dead chump: ALL community colleges are funded through property taxes. ALL of them. That’s how they exist. That’s how public education exists. We need public education so that we can avoid producing idiots like you. It has a great value to society in that way!
The law enforcement in Los Angeles and Chicago has a lot more checks and balances and accountability than the Law Enforcement Agencies in Humboldt County and that includes Tribal officers as they are all receiving the piss poor training from the CR academy! I have lived in Los Angeles and New York City so I do have a little experience with other creatures of their kind and the training and administration have a huge impact on the officers in training! I am hoping that the Hoopa Tribal Police program can get on their feet but at this time they are relying on their same old training protocols and recruitment methods that include picking from within their dysfunctional structure to build a strong program and we don’t have the knowledge or experience at this time! Our community deserves better and it’s time to demand the accountability! 99% of law enforcement are not great people but they in their need for power and attention think that they are great people! The statistics of Law Enforcement Family Domestic Violence are on the increase every year. The #1 one killer of police officers in the US is law enforcement suicide.
One could easily turn that statistic around and point out the heightened domestic violence rates in native families. Does that demonstrate native Americans are bad people? You can’t have it one way and not the other.
Cops, firemen, ambulance crews, and veterans are all exposed to a lot of trauma. Leads to a lot of self medication and destructive behavior if not managed appropriately.
You defend a gross lack of both restraint and weapons proficiency and others are stupid? It sounds like these cops are only alive because of the restraint of a man who had ample opportunity to shoot them while they were busy making asses of themselves. I certainly would not wait and see if someone would stop shooting on their own if i were armed and got lit up like this guy.
Apache warrior… That was a pretty interesting comment you left there… you must have a lot of hate in your heart. I pity you. Kim works hard and keeps us informed. Have some respect or don’t go on her site ✌
You must be related to a police officer to have your views that obscured
Cops are trigger happy and have no regard for life.
This may serve as adequate cryptology:
CR is where the [edit] Academy is located.
Not to be construed as endorsing the original argument.
We need an “ignore” button. I know you will still have to read some trashy, garbage posts, anyway. I give you credit for allowing very divergent viewpoints, which some of the narrow minded peabrains would never allow.
Please don’t ban us Kym, our message is important. There are facts in them.
Frankly, I’m getting pretty tired of the rants taking over the threads. Don’t get so carried away. A couple of comments a day is one thing but this deluge that I have to read every word of….I don’t know how long I can tolerate this.
“I don’t know how long I can tolerate this.”
You’ve tolerated it far too long, in this reader’s opinion, and it accelerated and became a chorus after your post directed at the troll, which is a mistake no blog writer or any online writer ought to make: ~~~never feed a troll~~~. Don’t even acknowledge a troll, once identified as such.
These clowns aren’t going to listen to reason. They’ve no respect for you or this blog. They’re trolls. Please take appropriate action/s. Thanks.
Perspective:
‘Policing The Trolls: The Ins and Outs of Comment Moderation’
http://www.npr.org/sections/ombudsman/2014/09/24/348775874/policing-the-trolls-the-ins-and-outs-of-comment-moderation
‘How Trolls Are Ruining the Internet’
Time Magazine Aug 18, 2016
http://time.com/4457110/internet-trolls/
Give that man a cigar!!!
IF he drew a weapon
(and we don’t know if that’s true), I am sure he was thinking that his life was going to end right then and there. The car says all i need to know. I don’t believe anything from the county at this point. I hope he sues the crap out of the county and gets a new corvette along with a villa in Mexico out of the horrible crime that was committed against him. Terrifying that this could happen to someone who was just doing their job.
That’s my very first thought as well.
Would love to know which officers shot.
Working where he was and a car pulls up behind him, he possibly had his gun in his hand when approached by the Sheriff’s deputy and it got out of hand, we don’t have all of the facts in the case, also Mr. George Robbins performing duties as a armed Security guard with out having a Security license or licensed to be armed by the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services for the state of California.
Mccoveys got a pretty decent point
Are you kidding me, white kids and white people are being shot at by EPD fairly regularly. So now they don’t want patrols, a month ago they did, now they don’t. Obviously something is wrong in this case with a guard being shot, but seriously, the tribal members can’t make up their gd minds!
I believe her point was that whenever police are actually needed out there, for emergency situations, they never seem to get there until hours later or even the next day, but this time they just happen to be “patrolling” at 10pm and decide to litter this guys car with bullets as he is innocently doing his job. And she’s absolutely right!
They stated in the open letter they need efficient Patrols not the Half Ass Loose Cannon type they have now!!! The Deputies refuse to answer calls when they need them & on the rare occasions they do, are worse than what they were called to control!!!! All this I read in the Open Letter!!! Try reading occasionally before going off the deep end!!!!
WHo needs stinkin’ facts?
maybe you need to go there and get an education on respect and manners, or do something with your life other then bad mouth and point fingers at people you know nothing about…just sayin’, couldn’t agree with Patti McCovey more…
Heh “peace officer”!! Pull the other one it’s got bells on…
Why always bring Race into it?? The act of the Sheriff’s Dept is pure bullshit.. no matter the color..
Because when it comes to LEO’s there are some known bad actors in regards to race. I was in an anti-hate crime group in Mendocino county. The FBI was investigating some of the local LEOs for hate crimes and we had info on some of them. Some of those officers get shifted around when their Dept gets sick of them. There was one who killed several people and we got complaints from others who were stopped in isolated places and it was sketchy and dangerous. Based on race. I certainly hope the HCS hasn’t hired any of them or any like them.
If you were Native you would want to know. Just a matter of public safety.
I agree Mudgie
I think they feel that if you include race then the shooting is somehow justified. It’s BS. I’ve always critiqued the concept of including race.
If you are a McCovey, you might want to see your relatives social media pages about this. Numerous posts claiming “pigs” and this happened because of “white privilege” and “white devils did this”. No links will be provided, but they are out there. That is about as racist as one an get.
Professional victims……
Actually you don’t know what racism means. The group why systemically have power, money and control (white) and use them to discriminate, harm, oppress, marginalized, and suppress a group other than them (whites) are racist. Minorities are victims and have no power in this system to protect themselves. Power, privilege and control.
You’re right about that..she has a pretty good point…why did they body slam an 80 year old in fields landing so hard that it killed him ? Then said they detained him until the investigation was over and he had a medical emergency after they released him?My good friend was there and watched the whole thing…that elderly man was on his face in handcuffs when he died.. True story…HCS is getting pretty violent with normal citizens
Martial law creeping out
Lets see HCS kills woman while drunk she fell off the back of the motor cycle HCS caught sneeking drugs into the jail HCS blows of little girls hand with fireworks just to mention a few there are many more
Just when I thought I almost knew what you were talking about, I didnt.
Cops committed those crimes.
Notice the window on driver side still rolled up if he was aiming a gun at the officer dont you think he would have rolled the window down first ? its just not normal for someone to shoot through their own window its obvious the hcso story is fabricated. I guess a native in a corvette is automatically suspicious these days wtf?
The charge didn’t say he fired or attempted to fire his weapon. It only said that he brandished it.
I never stated he fired the weapon at all i clearly wrote IF he aimed the weapon like it says in the report. Drawing a weapon refers to pointing it in the general direction of the officer with intent to fire not likely in this case
I would ask how much more of this everyone is going to put up with, but I already know the answer – they’ll just believe whatever the HCSO says, and that they had a damn good reason for trying to murder yet another person.
FTP
“Serve and protect” ya masters
Sad bullet pattern! Was he shooting at the driver or passenger? ?????
The only passenger was his Pomeranian.
…I’m not renting it shoes; I’m not buying it a beer…fucking show dog! Fucking dog has fucking papers…OVER THE LINE!”
AFAIK, there was no passenger, so…!!!
I’m guessing “put your hands up” was too difficult of a command to follow?
If I was working out in the middle of the Devil’s Lettuce Gardens stronghold … I would expect law enforcement to b on edge and I would comply completely if I came into contact with them.
I’m guessing ol George thought differently
You are guessing incorrectly! “Devils lettuce gardens” as you say, had NOTHING to do with this! And he didn’t have time to put his hands up since the HCS didn’t identify themselves.
Last year my Brother Mark was chased into the Trinity river and Drowned. George Robbins had a Boat in the river the next day trying to help us find my Brother. I offered to pay him for his time and gas and he wouldn’t take my money. He was out there everyday trying to help us find my Brother.
I will add that Mark was chased by a Humboldt County Sheriffs Deputy because he was mistaken for someone else who had warrents and his body has never been found! The sheriffs department failed to even search for Mark! FTP in full effect from my perspective! They have no business down river without a call and even when they are called they never show soooooo, please do not share any protect the blue crap in my presence. HCSD has some serious explaining to do!
Our situation is hopeless! So…we are hoping the HCSD will save us from armed tweakers and thieves? It’s like that last crap election where all we get is Hillary to hope for against Trump. I mean- we are truly screwed. No side to even root for at this point. I know a couple tweakers who would not shoot a guy, shoot that poorly and then LIE about it to keep our support. So yes, these officers are worse than some tweakers. I said it. Now they killed the old guy in Fields Landing, they shot this guy at Martin’s Ferry, they are refusing to bust all the huge and very obvious weed grows everywhere, they are not solving murders and friggin’ Marcie is still on vacation! Awesome professionals we got here!!
Beautifully said!!!
Sad to hear this happened. Hope he is going to be OK.
Thank you Kym for the head line of this article. The head line of the same incident in another online news source read: Hoopa man arrested after officer involved shooting. “A firearm was located in the vehicle and seized as evidence.”
Kym you took time to get your facts straight and even quoted Patti McCovey who is one of our communities respected voice. As usual I am impressed with your diligence and commitment to facts.
Definetly Kym. It was so Blatant on the other site that i didn’t even bother to read… thinking that it was just another crazy day out in our parts. The facts here and the completly straight shot angle on the story really grabbed our attention, plus clearly depicted facts and a (another) whole intruiging while scary as shit story emerged about the people we look to for safety. Completely absurd behavior from HCS. Out of his territory flexing his badge, and as ridiculous as his grouping pattern is, flexing his firearm as well, on a security officer??!!. it is definetly time for a change.. or some community action.
This guy is lucky in a way, that the Deputy was such a piss poor shot!!! The deputy obviously needs a lot more firing range time!!! Along with a LOT of other things as well!!!!
Looks like two shooters to me, trajectory goes from left to right and right to left all from the outside, you couldn’t shoot blow the fender on the right side while standing on the left, I would say both are terrible shots thankfully for the person in the car. Hood damage could indicate he was driving towards them which would be justified in the eyes of the law but only if you are a police officer.
Fortunately for the poor guy they must use the ssme shooting instructors as the Eureka PD.
I don’t agree with what the officer did, but why all this about race. How the hell can you tell the race of someone at 10 pm at night. Sure it is on tribal land but there are non-Native Americans out on those roads too.
Why doesn’t the tribe get their law enforcement back, maybe this would help resolve some of these issues.
Everybody should already know when you encounter any local Leo its about 50/50 whether you survive, and race probably does matter.
But fact is they enjoy killing and we always let them off the hook
[edit]
Thanks Kym
It seems you are the only reporter that covers a story
A firearm was discovered on him, so the conclusion “cover story” is he must have pulled on the cops or they lacked a cause to shoot at him.
The camera angle is not the firing angle. The bullet markings clearly indicate a majority drivers seat grouping. Good thing he ducked. Hmmmm Black Corvette on deserted road late at night, yeah that screams security guard. Cal Trans and Contractor, gonna be lawsuit. Que Zwerdling.
He most likely gave the officer a little attitude, understandable. The attitude scared the cop. Then the cop sees the firearm, gives a command which Robbins did not follow, understandable, but not the wisest decision. What happen after that to cause the officer to fire his weapon, not sure. Attitude from both sides + weapons = No good outcome.
Survival sometimes needs to take precedent over “I have rights”
The whole situation really sucks. Very valid points as to why the hell HCS was even there.
This is an amazing story. As usual, in Humboldt County, our press releases come with few facts.
Hoopa/Weitchpec contains many challenges. It’s a wild and remote area in which the population is split into two distinct groups. Native Americans know they have problems, but the problems belong to their culture. When non-natives intersect native culture without respecting this culture, an unexpected result is the usual product. It is their place. Theirs.
Native Americans are not the same as the non-native culture. The reservation is a sovereign nation, and, while outsiders may not respect native culture, is does exist. Just because non-natives don’t understand native culture, does not mean it is bad or wrong. It is just different.
Clashes with law enforcement are common in this area. Most of these incidents do not result in shooting, thanks to the restraint of the Humboldt County Sheriff. Many many incidents of late could have ended in the deaths of persons on either side of the law enforcement paradigm. It makes me sad that this man was shot, but we can’t know what actually occurred here, at this time.
Please try to support the brave people who have to go out and attempt to keep order.
Let’s not forget the cars front end damage. Did he try and run them over, run away or is that how he drove it around?
Ten at night windows up pretty hardto notice a weapon in my opinion, he’s out there guarding that equipment I’d have a gun to the sheriff dept is lucky he did have a gun on him , it’s the only thing that might keep the fumbled story together for them .
More information needed, less spew.
HCS lack values just as the greed growers they steal from. To many stacks of cash snuck in to his back pocket.
This ones brain may have been damaged from contact with high potency extraction residue. The improperly discharged weapon was taken from the deceased.
Just wondering to myself…….you’re on security guard duty, it’s dark out and a car rolls up behind you. You can’t see who it is because of the blinding head lights. The guy jumps out shines a flashlight in your eyes, says he’s a cop. You’ve heard of that ruse before so, trying to defend yourself, you reach for the gun in your car…….bang, bang, bang!
Just guessing, of course.
Contracts on Tribal land require a Tribal watchman. Pretty simple. If this so called LEO knew about the land he was covering, this would have never happened. Ridiculous.
Another gun happy scared little cop! Big suprize!
Kym! The headline is confusing. Was he ‘shot at’? I thought he was ‘shot’!
He was grazed. He was also shot at. Shot sounded like he was in the hospital to me so I added “at.”
Seems to minimize the facts. I might have suggested ‘shot by deputy’ or something less passive. But then again I am just a commentor, not the editor
It’s a hard line to walk to chose a balanced way of describing what happened. I feel better about this choice though as the rest of the story details the situation.
Courageous, selfless protectors of all that`s right and who put their lives on the line every day…….Not quite — cowardly bullies of low intelligence who`ve been indoctrinated with the belief their magic suit imparts to them the qualities of gods.
This is the work of someone who is frightened of their own shadow and has been taught the doctrine of “shoot first and ask questions later”. The most likely scenario:
Mr. Robbins was sitting in his parked car. He certainly had a gun — as was entirely appropriate. The the SO drove up in their car; lights directed toward Mr. Robbins. Mr. Robbins was now blinded, which is what the SO intended SO exited their car and began walking toward Mr. Robbins. SO did not identify themselves or didn`t do so in a manner that Mr. Robbins could hear. All Mr. Robbins now knows is in the middle of the night, an unknown car has driven up, the lights are shining in his eyes and 2 men who he can see only very indistinctly are approaching. Most likely he begins to draw his weapon as he — quite correctly — perceives a threat. The SO likely see the motion of Mr. Robbins drawng this and then open fire. A wild guess on my part as to distance; however I would place it as between 50′ and 20′.
This sort of thing is the entirely foreseeable and expected consequence of setting up an environment in which people of low intelligence and who are by nature cowardly bullies and sadists are encouraged and thrive. It`s my understanding the ideal police recruit has an IQ score between 90 and 80. Policeman is the only legally and socially accepted place where the traits of a sadistic bully are actively encouraged. While hard to determine, it`s certain a large proportion of policemen are simply thugs and bullies who are too stupid, cowardly and lazy to be thugs and bullies on their own merit and have to hide behind a badge, magic suit and take refuge in the shadow of “big brother”.
It`s all to easy to attribute this to “racism”. Certainly this is a factor albeit a minor one. White people get attacked by police as often as other races. In the case of Mr. Robbins, it was night so how could anything about him be determined — certainly not his race?
We`ve had recently the shooting of Mr. Robbins; the gratuitous violence against the elderly man in Field`s Landing, resulting in his death; the shooting death of Justine Ruszczyk in Minneapolis — a blonde veterinarian and spiritual guide. Of course there are many, many other examples of this disturbing trend.
Is there a solution? Of course — there are two. The first would be the entire dismantling and re-construction of the apparatus in policing in this country. This would require as well a complete dismantling and reconstruction of the entire court system as well as complete review and revision of all laws. If this were to be done, very few who are presently policemen would be re-employed in a new system.
Is this solution likely? Of course not — the chances of this happening are close to zero. Unfortunately, this ensures the second solution will move forward. At some point — a “critical mass” — a significant proportion of the population is going to realize that, in general, police are nothing more than a self – serving, dangerous gang and are going to begin treating them as such. I`m always a little surprised how many people who are known to me to be law – abiding, hard working, honest and honorable people state this openly. I believe it was President Kennedy who said something on the order of: “Those who make peaceful reform impossible make violent revolution inevitable”. We are going to see the manifestation of Mr. Kennedy`s astute observation.
Preach!
Only in Humboldt would a Secutity Guard be using a corvette for work…..
I Really don’t think his race or color or whatever played a big part..
The cops were afraid or nervous or drunk or whatever.
WHY WERE THEY EVEN THERE ?
All the cops should be Suspended WITH OUT PAY until a Full review
Thank God they such piss poor shots
From the placement of bullet holes, I wonder if the police may have intentionally tried not to fire a fatal shot.
Also, I wonder what happened to the Corvette to cause the hood to be open, requiring a restraint to hold it in place.
As someone who has had a CCW and regularly practices at a range, I’d point out that these shots in the photo of the car were from in front of the car and aimed into the driver’s seat.
Why stand in front of a car? The driver can run you over from there, and you should be trying to talk to the driver not kill him.
Why aren’t the windows rolled down? Looks like no effort was made at communication or did the shooter just telepathically tell the victim something?
How would you see if anyone pulled a firearm from as far away as these shots were fired through dark windows at night? X-ray vision or magical thinking seems to be at work here. And how would you know that the person in the car isn’t afraid of you, has a CCW and is doing his job if you don’t bother to try to talk to them?
And finally
How in hell do you have your job? Besides a lack of people skills, you’re a rotten lousy shot THANK GOD or the security man would not still be alive.
Time for this LEO to quit and get a job doing something where they can harm no one. Time for the CR instructors to look inside themselves at what they’re teaching and time for the Sheriff’s Office to do some retraining – or simply training – as it doesn’t appear the prior versions stuck.
There are some S.O. LEO’s who I bet are cringing at this episode, some of them are good shots and good people. Unfortunately, that’s not a uniform condition.
Here’ s a big question for me.
Did the sheriffs have ‘blue and red’ lights on ?
Blue lights would identify the vehicle as a LEO to the security guard.
White head lights… no blue/red… would have blinded the security guard…
and he picked up the revolver.
There is a photo over at the L/C Outpost.
Shows a LEO car with only bright white lights on the Corvette.
Also… were there 3 Deputies ? In one car or two?
Interesting.
There were three officers. https://kymkemp.com/2017/07/18/nightwatchman-admitted-pointing-gun-at-officers-says-sheriff-billy-honsal/
Has any one living down river ever seen the Sheriff’s department just patrolling the area day or night? According the Sheriffs department they were showing a new guy the area. Since we do not have street lights, exactly what were they showing him… ?? How to almost kill someone and get away with it?
Lost in all this is the damage done to the Corvette! Hope the [edit] (cops) have to pay for it.
Wonder if parts from the Coroners Office Corvette can be swapped out? Could maybe put together a Black and White Corvette.
FWIW Offficer Matilton is from Hoopa and is a Tribal member! He knows the way of the Rez!
Oh yeah, that means he would also know about the night security guard! And I believe they started the night security when equipment was stolen from the site!!
Well, whatever the fault, the guy lived! Most places he would have been shot 255 times and been long gone…..glad everyone survived!