after authorities had failed to reach anyone inside over several hours and after they had detonated a flash-bang grenade. Two knee-high robots on tractor wheels discovered the bodies in the manager’s office at 2:33 p.m. Later, an FBI negotiator arrived as well.Īfter about 4½ hours, authorities established that Roberts, 38, and a man whom authorities declined to identify lay dead inside, a murder-suicide. They included the county Sheriff’s Department, the California Highway Patrol and tribal security from the Barona Indian Reservation near Lakeside. The main resort entrance was closed for about an hour as dozens of law enforcement officers responded. The time wasn’t yet 10 a.m., and the Barona Resort & Casino grounds were already bustling with business. Three or four shots were heard as more than a dozen other employees hurried out a back door. Inside, he told three secretaries to leave and headed into a manager’s office. Surveillance video captured the closing moments of Donnell Roberts’ life as the former employee sped up to the office in his truck, braked violently, grabbed a shotgun from the back and barreled into the entrance, the gun slung over his shoulder. (Union-Tribune file photo / 2003)Ī man who was fired from a job with the Barona Gaming Commission last month shot and killed a manager in a commission office and then himself yesterday, authorities said.
Aerial view of Barona Casino in Lakeside.
