Willie Robertson speaks out after estate is targeted in drive-by shooting
Former 'Duck Dynasty' star Willie Robertson gives an update on the case on 'Fox & Friends.'
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The Robertson family is delving into their initial reactions to a drive-by shooting that happened on the North Louisiana estate property of “Duck Dynasty” star Willie Robertson.
Jase Robertson, along with his brother Al Robertson and the family patriarch, Phil Robertson, described what was to be an easy-going afternoon capped off with a lobster dinner that quickly turned into a moment of terror for the family after Jase said he was alerted by his mother, Marsha Kay Robertson, 72, that a shooting had taken place outside the compound.
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Phil, 74, kicked off the discussion on Jase’s “Unashamed” podcast on Wednesday and walked them through his thought process as he heard the gunfire, which was familiar given the wilderness area in which they live, but he was preparing for a firefight.
“Well, I got the .22 [caliber] in my hand and I said not enough weapon. I said, 'Let me go – that sounded like at the gate up here,'" he recalled. “I said, 'That's where it sounds like they are. So I said, well, let me just get up here and get that AR and I'll go up there.”
The elder Robertson said he thought twice about making the rash decision to investigate and return fire.
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“But then I stopped. I said, 'Wait a minute, I'm behind a locked gate. If they crash the gate, they'll be here in just a little bit,” he said. “I said, '[If] I go up there and it's a bunch of drunk teenagers shooting at the signs, shooting my gate [and] I get the AR and kill them all – I probably would end up on the wrong side of this thing.’ They're not at my house. They are on the side of the road, and a bunch of drunk teenagers who drank too much beer and [who are] somebody's children. And I'm sitting there and I kill all of them. I'm like, ‘That just won't play well.’”
Phil said he later assessed the damage and found small-caliber bullet holes in the side of his property’s gate that appeared to be fresh.
Daniel King Jr. was booked into a correctional center on Monday after two homes in West Monroe were struck by gunfire on Friday afternoon, the Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post. No one was injured in the shooting, authorities said.
Jase went on to thank local law enforcement for their speedy investigative work.
“I have to really give our police and law enforcement two thumbs up because, within 48 hours, they have a suspect that they've arrested," he said before recounting where he was when the incident occurred.
“I'm at this is in the middle of the day when this happened and it's Friday, beautiful day, the sun is shining and I'm taken a nap at 2:30 in the afternoon on my couch,” Jase explained. “We're quarantine living. I usually take a nap around that area.”
“So I hear something – because very few things wake me up. Gunshots usually wake me up,” he continued to his brother and father. “But I was kind of like you, even though I'm in town, I'm in a gated neighborhood. Most of the people in my neighborhood, they're my family. So I'm like, ‘OK.’ My dog barked. So I'm like, ‘What was that? I don't know.’”
Al Robertson quickly jumped in adding, “And we're not in the city limits where we live, but we're pretty close. We're close. But in other words, we do hear some shooting from time to time. The refuge is right behind us, you know.”
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Jase said he felt the noise was “weird” but ultimately went back to sleep.
“Then my phone starts ringing. Well, when I answer my phone, things changed because it was Kay, my mom, and she's like – here's what she said – but her voice, because you know how Ms. Kay can be, she can be, you know, embellish and exaggerate like most of the Robertsons … But the tone and her voice, I knew what she was saying was true. But she said people have shot Willie's house. They've shot John Luke's house. The police are on their way.”
John Luke Robertson and wife Mary Kate Roberston. The home they're staying in was one damaged during the drive-by shooting on his father's property. (Curtis Hilbun)
Jase said given the fact this was his first time experiencing anything like a drive-by shooting, he wanted to share the harrowing moment with his listeners.
“You got to remember when you look at something in hindsight, it makes sense. That's why I thought I would share this was my first experience with, you know, I hear gunshots now I get the call. She said, ‘Well, what do you do? Because you got to remember, I was just asleep,” he explained.
“So I had a rifle and a shotgun within 10 seconds in both hands” Jase pressed noting that he hadn’t gotten the full report from his mother because he hung up on her in a panic.
“Because what I'm thinking [is] I need some weapons because I'm thinking house-to-house. I was doing it in my head. I didn't know if the guy is on foot. I don't know. That's all I got,” he said. “So I get my weapons and I'm like, ‘Where's my family?’ And so I do a quick search of the house and I see no one. And so I look outside, of course, I'm looking for foe or my family.”
He continued: “Well Missy, she's in the backyard just whatever – gardening. And so I opened the door, which I didn't realize how I look. I have two guns and I said, 'Get in the house now.' And she said, 'I think I just heard some gunshots,' which is what she said. But then more sternly, I said, 'Get in the house now.' I scared her.
Jase said he rationalized in his mind the best approach to take and simply made a judgment call similar to Phil’s that “I’m not going to sit here.”
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“In my mind – [I have] a live threat here. So I thought, 'You know what? I'm not going to be a sitting duck. I mean, if I go down – I'm fixed to go look here.' So I kind of went through a process in my mind, 'OK, I may have to shoot somebody. I'm fine with that.”
Jase explained how he felt in the moment comparing the idea of hunting foes to hunting deer.
“I was looking at things because I realize most people think when they go deer hunting, they go out in the woods – people who don't deer hunt much, they're looking for deer. Well, you're not gonna see them because they see you,” he said. “And so, you look for things out of place.”
“So I remember, I looked at the wind because I thought if I have to use a rifle, I want to see which way the wind's going,” he added. “And I actually looked down at my hand to see if it was shaking and it wasn't, which I thought, ‘Well, that's good.’”
Phil jumped in adding, “The difference between you and me is when I got word, I was within arm's reach of an AR-15 and it's that way at all times,” to which Jase responded, “I realize it, Phil. I used to think you were paranoid, but now, you were prepared. You were right.”
Jase forged on with his recollection of events.
Pictured from left, Phil Robertson, Jase Robertson, Si Robertson and Willie Robertson from the A&E series, 'Duck Dynasty.' (AP, File)
“So I go out and I do a look of the whole property and I'm like, 'He's not here and he's not coming,'” Jase said. “So then when I went back in, Well, it was just Karina and [wife] Missy [Robertson]. And I'm like, well where's Mia?”
Jase described the specific frenzy as a “panic attack moment” when his wife informed him his daughters had stepped away to the store.
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“[Missy] is like, 'Well, she went to Dollar General,’ but Dollar General, where it's located, is not real far from where the shooting happened,” said Jase. “So now I'm like, 'Well, how long ago did she leave?' Thirty minutes? It takes five.”
Jase said he immediately jumped in his truck but said he didn’t want to leave his wife and their adopted daughter from Nicaragua, Karina, without viable protection.
“So I said, 'I've got the shotgun.’ And I said, ‘Here you go. Let me give you a quick tutorial.’ Well, I looked at Missy and she's never really been – she's always been afraid of guns and never wanted to deal with them,” he explained. “But I looked at her and I could see it in her eyes – she's all ears. 'Tell me what I need to do.'”
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“But I looked at Karina and I could tell she was scared,” said Jase. “I said, 'Karina, I'm sorry this happened because you're in our family but it has happened and there are people in this world who do bad things, you know'. But we got to rise up because I felt she needed an inspiration.”
Further in the conversation, Jase opened up about the animosity he felt in the moment towards the alleged perpetrator because the family’s children were also being fired at, but felt he had to table his emotions in order to protect his family.
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He also showed compassion towards the alleged shooter and felt the act was simply “a guy saying ‘hold my beer,’” but noted that if you do an “irrational act, you’re not going to get a rational answer.”
He questioned whether the alleged assailant might have lost his job and saw their residence as an opportunity to target “seemingly someone successful” but ultimately vowed to “share Jesus” with the alleged shooter.
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