Hillsborough shooting not the 1st but it’s rare

In the early hours of an August morning that year, Hillsborough police Officer Eugene Doran, 36, was investigating registration/ownership of an automobile parked near the intersection of Skyline Boulevard and Bunker Hill Road, not far from the Crystal Springs reservoir.

The driver of the car was Alexander Robillard, 19, a young San Mateo man with a criminal record. During the investigation, Robillard shot Doran (husband of a pregnant wife and father of two children) six times, killing him on the spot. One of the wounds was described as an obvious finishing “kill shot” to the neck. Robillard then fled the scene.

Robillard, who was a member of the Class of 1958 at Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, was tracked down fairly quickly. He was arrested and charged with Doran’s murder. Forensic evidence was definitive.

Robillard was convicted and sentenced to death. An appeal was denied. The governor, Edmund Brown, refused to intervene. Robillard was then executed in the San Quentin Prison gas chamber in the spring of 1961.

According to state law enforcement records, Doran is the only Hillsborough police officer ever slain in the line of duty. An Interstate 280 bridge near the scene of the 1959 shooting was named in Doran’s memory.

In the latest case, the officer was wounded by a gunman during an incident on Saturday afternoon in a parking lot at the Hillsborough town center on Floribunda Avenue. The town’s police headquarters is located there.

The officer is expected to recover fully. As of Tuesday morning, a suspect in the shooting had not been publicly identified and a motive for the assault had not been announced by authorities.

NEWSBANK AVAILABLE IN SSF: Need a handy (and free) newspaper archive for your research? The South San Francisco Public Library has been promoting the availability of such an online data service. NewsBank is the valuable asset in question. A valid library card is necessary if you intend to use the helpful tool that allows access to a trove of information from a wide variety of publications (even those that are no longer in business) from across the globe.

GET ON BOARD NOW, FOLKS: Did anyone see this coming? An inventive outfit has begun offering pickleball lessons for children to allegedly better their soon-to-be lot in life. One of its recent texted blurbs touts the sport as “one of the best investments you can make in their (your kid’s) future.” So forget about that SAT score. Don’t fret so much about his or her GPA. Today’s emphasis, apparently, is on the “in” sport of pickleball. Then it’s time to send that admission application on to MIT or Stanford.

CARDINAL McELROY TO HEAD EAST: Catholic Cardinal Robert McElroy, who grew up here on the Peninsula, is moving from his post as bishop of San Diego to Washington, D.C., where he will become archbishop in the nation’s capital this spring. The appointment was announced by Pope Francis last month. The cardinal, who has deep roots here, once served at two San Mateo County Catholic parishes, St. Pius in Redwood City and St. Gregory’s in San Mateo. He also attended St. Patrick’s Catholic Seminary in Menlo Park.

A CHANT FROM THE PAST: It was a wake and a celebration on Mission Street in Daly City last week. Hundreds attended the scheduled final night of basketball at the ancient Jefferson High School gymnasium. Dozens of former players and ex-coaches showed up to say goodbye to the old building, a Depression-era classic and the last of its kind in San Mateo County. At one point, the crowd chanted “Let’s go, Indians,” a reference to the school’s original athletic nickname, now anathema in a woeful woke world.

John Horgan has been writing about San Mateo County’s ins and outs, to the tune of an estimated 7 million words, since 1963, beginning modestly at the now-defunct Burlingame Advance Star. Contact him by email at johnhorganmedia@gmail.com.