CANTON - The Canton High School athletic director was the apparent victim of a shooting on campus this morning, and officials were searching for a suspect.
Law enforcement officials responded to a report of shots fired Canton High School, and reports indicate Gary Joe Kinne, the Canton High athletic director and football coach, was transported by helicopter to a Tyler hospital, where his condition is unknown.
Kinne was reportedly shot at the school's athletic field house in Canton. Police Chief Mike Echols said Kinne was shot in the chest.
The Governor's Office of Homeland Security identified the shooter as Jeffrey Doyle Robertson, father of a Canton High School student. According to the Associated Press, the suspect fired a high-powered rifle and fled the scene in a 2004 black Dodge pickup.
Canton police officials confirmed Robertson is the suspect and described him as heavily armed and dangerous.
At mid-day police were searching an area around Garden Valley after a pickup was found abandoned on Farm to Market 1995.
Robertson had other weapons in his truck and had made a statement that he had a hit list and would not be taken alive, said Sophie Yanez, a spokesman for the state Home-land Security office.
With the suspect at large, Canton schools were immediately placed on lock-down.
Six Tyler schools were also placed on low-level lockdown as a precautionary meas-ure, Tyler Independent School District officials. Those schools were John Tyler High School, Stewart Middle School, Boulter Middle School, and Dixie, Orr and Peete ele-mentaries.
Police Chief Echols said Robertson was an original member of the "Canton Mafia" and had been warned off all school premises and not to attend any school functions.
Officers were originally told that the suspect may be headed toward Tyler where he has friends. Later, police issued a statewide alert.
According to the Tyler Police Department spokesman Don Martin, Robertson is driv-ing a 2004 black Dodge pickup with license plate 64N XW1. Kinne is a former Baylor linebacker who signed as a free agent with the Philadelphia Eagles out of Baylor and also played one year in the old World League for the Orlando Thunder.
His post at Canton began two years ago, his first as head coach, after spending six years at Mesquite High School. He also spent one year at Allen and three at Kaufman. Kinne also has family ties to Tyler. His father, Gary Kinne Sr., played on Tyler Junior College's national championship football team. His mother, Nancy, was an Apache Belle.