Canton, Texas ? A man whose son had been kicked off the high school football team and who had been banned from school grounds because of volatile outbursts shot and critically wounded the head coach Thursday before trying to take his own life, officials said.

Jeffrey Doyle Robertson, 45, “was upset with the coaching system,” said Michael Echols, chief of Canton’s Public Safety Department.

Inside the Canton High School field house Thursday morning, as first-period classes ended, Robertson ambushed Gary Joe Kinne, 37, the football coach and athletic director, said City Manager Charles Fenner.

Robertson fired a single shot from a large-caliber handgun into Kinne’s chest, then raced away in a pickup truck, Echols said. Kinne, who was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Tyler, about 35 miles southeast of here, underwent surgery and was listed in critical but stable condition Thursday night, officials said.

Two hours after the shooting, as law enforcement officers from 15 agencies closed in, Robertson ditched his truck on the side of a rural highway, and fled into the woods.

Officers found him about 500 yards away, lying face-down, unresponsive and surrounded by several guns he allegedly had thrown into the brush, said Canton Police Sgt. Brad Allison. At least one weapon was found in the truck. Robertson appeared to have cut himself on both wrists and stabbed himself in the thigh in an attempt to take his life, Allison said.

Robertson was treated and released from a hospital but remained in police custody. Echols said he would be charged with attempted murder.

No one witnessed the shooting, authorities said. At the time of the shooting, they said, Kinne and Robertson were the only people inside the field house, a one-story brick building next to the football field, emblazoned with a large sign that reads: “Winning Starts Here.”

Jeffrey Doyle Robertson, on stretcher, is carried to an ambulance after being captured outside Canton, Texas. Robertson, the father of a high school football player, allegedly shot and wounded his son's coach with an assault rifle Thursday and fled in a pickup loaded with weapons, claiming to have a hit list, authorities said. He was captured a few hours later, after his truck was found outside Canton.

But at least one student saw Robertson drive away from the field house, authorities said, and the student identified him as the suspect.

In the hours after the shooting, several people told investigators Robertson had announced his intentions at a party Wednesday night. After a few drinks, Echols said, Robertson told friends he planned to lash out in some way against five of this town’s 3,292 residents, including Kinne.