Monday, March 14, 2005

Redneck Alert!

On December 10, 2004 the BPD attempted to pull over a car driven by Robert Macklin. Knowing he had a gun hidden in the back seat, Macklin tried to escape by leading police on a short chase and then turning onto a dead end street. According to reports, the car then turned and attempted to run over an officer who had exited his patrol car. Four shots were fired and the passenger, Elias Quinones, was killed.

Today there’s a new article in The Californian about Macklin. His first experience with police came when he was just three years old. The apartment building he was in caught fire and the BPD were the first to arrive on the scene. After several attempts to enter the smoke filled room, fire fighters arrived and rescued the boy. Macklin was left with lung damage and multiple scars but his reply when asked about the incident was “I just got burned up.”

The fire and the car chase are not the only run-ins Macklin has had with the law. Last month, while out on bail, he was involved in a fight in Oildale that sent Charlie Burnside “to the hospital with stab wounds in his neck, back, arm and hand.” Macklin fled the scene but later admitted to the attack. His explanation for stabbing Burnside is “I almost got my thumb cut off by that guy.”

Faced now with spending the next four years in jail Macklin says “I’m sorry for getting into trouble” and he “ain’t a bad guy” and he does “nothing but good things for people.” Most of all he just wants to get back to the life he had before “watching TV and visiting family.”