January 10, 2019 600 AM
ALPINE – Two men are dead after a shooting with the New Year just five days old here.
Police reported Saturday that Michael Alan Pate, 34, was shot multiple times and killed by 42-year-old Robert Nin at the home of mutual friend in the 300 block of South Cockrell Street, across the street from Sul Ross Jackson Field.
Police Lieutenant Felipe Fierro Jr. said Pate’s six-year-old son witnessed the shooting. The child’s grandmother, Cheryl Pate, told an Odessa television station the child had already lost his mother and is now an orphan. A motive to the killing hasn’t been established.
Nin was reported as a fugitive for more than 30 hours before his body was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound in the 300 block of Phelps, just behind the home where the shooting occurred.
An autopsy should confirm whether Nin killed himself shortly after killing Pate.
The first call was at about 8:42 Saturday morning. Nin’s body was discovered about 3 p.m. Sunday. Until that time, police were saying Nin was on the lam and should be considered “armed and dangerous.” At least one family reported they hid upstairs with their firearms that day
