Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of a shooting incident. Reader discretion is advised.
ID’s Murder Under the Friday Night Lights revisits the shooting of Canton High School athletic director Gary Joe Kinne by a football player’s father. The episode titled “Winning at All Cost” will air on the network on Wednesday, January 24, 2024, at 10 p.m. ET.
The official synopsis for the upcoming episode says, “The shooting of an East Texas football coach inside the high school fieldhouse triggers a lockdown in the middle of a school day; as police race to track down an active shooter, they discover a community deeply divided by the coach’s past.”
According to CNN, in April 2005, Jeffrey Doyal Robertson, the father of a ninth-grade student, shot Gary Joe Kinne. The incident occurred in the morning at the Canton High School field house. At the time, Kinne was the school’s athletic director and head football coach. Authorities arrested Robertson a few hours after the shooting.
ESPN reported that Kinne was critically wounded in the shooting but survived. Robertson then received concurrent prison terms of 10 years and 20 years for the crime.
Who shot Canton High School football coach Gary Joe Kinne?
On April 7, 2005, a Canton High School student’s father shot the football coach and athletic director Gary Joe Kinne. CNN reported that the incident occurred in the school’s fieldhouse shortly after 10 a.m. that morning. Kinne suffered a gunshot wound to the chest. He survived despite his critically injuries. A witness claimed he saw the shooter leaving the field house.
Fox News further reported that the Homeland Security office identified the shooter as Jeffrey Doyal Robertson. He reportedly used an AK-47 rifle to commit the crime before fleeing the scene in a 2004 black Dodge pickup. Reportedly, Robertson exited his truck and called a friend on a cell phone. He told the friend about his plan to commit suicide by slitting his wrists in a nearby wooded area.
Authorities also found Robertson’s truck abandoned near a golf course off Interstate 20 about two hours after the shooting. They then arrested the suspect in the woods outside the town. He had two guns and a pocket knife with him and had self-inflicted wounds, reported The Seattle Times. Two days after the shooting, authorities charged him with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The outlet reported that Gary Joe Kinne was alone in the field house when Jeffrey Doyal Robertson shot him. Track coach Howard Bell claimed that several other coaches were inside the building when it occurred. Bell reportedly said, “I think he was just going down there to shoot all of us.”
Parents of Canton High School football players alleged that there were tensions between the program and the coach. NBC News reported that Kinne had turned the team around in recent years, and his decisions upset some players and their parents. Robertson reportedly had frequent run-ins with coaches causing school officials to ban him from campus sporting events. However, coaches believed that the issue had been stalled until Kinne’s shooting.
ESPN reported that a jury convicted Jeffrey Doyal Robertson of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Gary Joe Kinne’s shooting. In March 2006, he received a 20-year prison sentence on the count. Moreover, Robertson had previously pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a firearm on the school grounds. For this count, he received a 10-year term. Both terms were to be served concurrently.
Murder Under the Friday Night Lights will air a new episode this January 24, 2024, on ID.
