A man just released from prison last month shot and killed himself just before midnight Wednesday as police closed in to arrest him in the shooting of an Anchorage police officer.
Police say Kenneth Alonzo Santos Robinson, a 24-year-old who has spent much of his adult life behind bars, told people this week "he wasn't going back to jail."
Robinson shot himself in the head when confronted by police as he walked out of a Spenard apartment, police say.
Robinson is the grandson of Alonzo Patterson, a leader in the black community and pastor of the Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church. Patterson said he last saw his grandson, who was named after him, Wednesday morning when they prayed together after the shooting of Officer Jean Mills, he said. At that point, Patterson did not know his grandson was a suspect.
Robinson had been on the run since 3:15 a.m. Wednesday when police say he twice shot Mills during a routine traffic stop. Police said they believe Robinson fired on the officer because he feared going back to jail on charges stemming from a domestic violence incident and an armed robbery of a coffee stand.
After the shooting, he moved around during the day trying to elude police and spent part of the time hiding out in a portable toilet at an East Anchorage park after he abandoned his rental car.
Patterson said once it became clear that his grandson was the suspect, he worked closely with the Anchorage Police Department to bring him in safely. He said he is angry at police for not contacting him when they had his grandson surrounded outside the Spenard apartment building.
"They knew that I wanted to be there to try help him get out of a situation," Patterson said. "When it came to the crucial moment, I got left out of the equation.
"If they would have called me, I could have gone and gotten my grandson out of there," Patterson said. "He would have done what I told him."
Robinson called his grandfather about 10 minutes before he was shot, Patterson said. "He called me and said, 'Grandpa, I need to talk to you about something.' Then evidently someone else was calling him and he said, 'Grandpa, let me call you right back.' "
That was the last he would ever hear from his grandson.
Mills had pulled over Robinson for making an illegal turn near an apartment building along DeBarr Road, just west of Beaver Place. Police say Robinson reached for a gun after Mills asked for standard driving information. They say he shot her in the arm, with the bullet traveling through her upper arm and into her chest. When Mills began to run back to her car, he shot her in the hip, police said.
Police believe Robinson killed himself with the same .40-caliber handgun used in the police shooting. Ballistics tests are being conducted to confirm that.
TROUBLED SINCE AGE 7
Robinson had a long criminal history, including 18 juvenile offenses that reach back to when he was 7 years old, according to court documents. The juvenile charges included burglary, criminal mischief and vehicle theft.
In 2004, he went to prison after being charged with robbery, assault and theft.
In that case, he pleaded guilty to stealing a firearm from Alaska Shooter's Supply in East Anchorage and sticking up "Hot Spot" coffee shack on Tudor Road for $650 cash and a fistful of quarters, according to charging documents. Robinson, then 18, also took a diamond wedding ring from a woman working at the stand, the charges said.
Robinson spent much of the following years in prison in Seward, according to the Department of Corrections. By 2009, he was living in an Anchorage halfway house but was charged with escape, court documents say.
Robinson returned to Spring Creek Correctional Center, from which he was released last month.
Once out of prison on parole, Robinson was getting his life together, his grandfather said. He had earned his high school diploma in prison, was dating a girl, was going to church, and was looking forward to a normal life, Patterson said.
Growing up, "Kenny was a young man who never had a chance to live because he was always trying to survive," Patterson said. He didn't have a father around and his mother couldn't take care of him so he lived with his grandparents.
When he got out of prison, he couldn't find work because of his criminal record, Patterson said. "And Kenny once again re-entered that survival society out there."
Then, on May 28, Robinson, who had been living with his mother, punched in a bathroom door in her apartment.
Robinson's girlfriend was in the bathroom at the time, according to the criminal complaint.
Police investigated the incident, said it was domestic violence, charged him with malicious destruction of property, and issued an arrest warrant.
"Going back to jail triggered for Kenny a failure," Patterson said. "Another year to two years in jail after less than two weeks on the street."
On June 1, police suspect Robinson was behind the armed robbery of the Sugar Shack coffee stand, said Lt. Dave Parker, a police spokesman.
THE SEARCH IS ON
Then on Wednesday morning, Mills pulled Robinson over. After the shooting, when other officers arrived on the scene, they found two .40-caliber shell casings.
While fleeing, Robinson began calling a friend who he had just left in Muldoon, court documents say. Robinson said he was having car trouble and needed a ride. He ended up abandoning his car in the parking lot of the Whaley Center near Bragaw and East Northern Lights Boulevard. The friend later told investigators Robinson was "calm but urgent," according to court documents.
Robinson called the friend again at 4:30 a.m. and asked him what he was doing. The friend asked what was going on and Robinson answered, "It is better that you don't know," the documents say.
The friend and a couple of other people then went to Tikishla Park in Airport Heights and picked up Robinson. He was hiding in a portable toilet. Police say they later searched the stall looking for the weapon used in the shooting of Mills.
Robinson told his friends when they came for him, "I got pulled over and I had to run from the police," court documents say.
Police say they had a pretty good idea by early Wednesday that they were looking for Robinson. The license plate number and abandoned rental car led them back to him. They spent much of the day combing the city for him, chasing his quickly changing locations, police say.
Patterson said he hasn't seen concrete evidence that his grandson shot the police officer. Police Chief Mark Mew said there was no doubt in his mind that it was Robinson.
"Once they accused him of being the person who shot the police officer, that triggered another level of anxiety and Kenny was now scared," Patterson said. "Triggering the fear of going back to jail for another 30 or 40 years. Kenny couldn't take that."
By late Wednesday night, police had obtained an attempted murder warrant, and they converged on an apartment at 3900 Wyoming Drive where they knew Robinson to be.
Robinson had friends who lived there, Parker said.
At 11:45 p.m., Robinson left the four-plex and walked through a dirt alley east toward Greenland Drive, apparently not knowing the police were there.
Officers ordered him to stop, Parker said.
Neighbor Troy Swanson heard the commotion from inside his house. "They were shouting that he had a gun, over and over," he said.
Robinson had rapidly pulled a handgun from his clothing and shot himself in the head, Parker said.
Mew said none of the police officers fired their weapons.
Patterson said he wants to know why police didn't call his grandson on his phone. "They could have called him and said the building is surrounded, come out."
Swanson said police would later spot a bullet hole in his garage and investigators found a bullet on the ground inside. Parker, the police spokesman, said only one shot was fired in the encounter.
Patterson said police told him that the single bullet passed through his grandson's head and went through the wall of the garage. But he's skeptical that police did not fire their guns at all. He said Robinson's girlfriend, who was inside the apartment at the time, heard the police tell Robinson to get down, then heard four shots. Another person allegedly heard two shots fired.
"We don't know if Kenny shot himself or if the police shot him," he said. "We are waiting on the coroner's report."
"Too many questions are yet lingering out there," Patterson said.
By MEGAN HOLLAND and KYLE HOPKINS
Anchorage Daily News