BCI awaits Rooker’s autopsy report

CHILLICOTHE – The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is still waiting on a final autopsy report for a man who died after a high-speed pursuit in Pike County.

Robert Rooker, 26, was fatally injured after a high-speed chase with Pike County sheriff’s deputies March 28. The chase covered numerous roads and ended on Fields Hollow Road, near where Rooker lived.

According to Jill Del Greco, public information officer with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, investigators are waiting for the final autopsy report on Rooker’s body. The report will include toxicology results.

From there, Del Greco said BCI may continue to investigate the case before handing it over to a special prosecutor, as Pike County Prosecutor Rob Junk requested.

The night of his death, Rooker was pursued by two deputies and one major. A statement made by Special Deputy Paul Henderson to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation said Rooker was originally clocked going 52 mph in a 45 mph zone. When Henderson pursued Rooker, he realized he had accelerated to 80 mph to keep up.

Major Tim Dickerson and Deputy Joel Jenkins joined the chase. Henderson said as Dickerson got in front of Rooker’s vehicle and attempted to slow him down, Rooker turned his Ford Ranger into oncoming traffic and “tried to hit Major Dickerson’s cruiser.”

When Rooker turned onto Fields Hollow Road, Henderson said Rooker made a U-turn and accelerated “at a high rate of speed” toward Dickerson’s cruiser.

“At that time I then observed Major Dickerson exit his cruiser, removed his duty weapon from his holster, and then fired his duty weapon toward the suspect’s vehicle,” Henderson wrote.

After Dickerson fired his weapon, Rooker continued down Fields Hollow Road and the pursuit proceeded. Then, Henderson said Rooker’s vehicle went partially off the roadway and he saw Jenkins’ cruiser was “against the front end of the the Ranger’s.”

Henderson said after he exited his cruiser he saw Jenkins “with his service weapon pointed towards the suspect’s vehicle” and said he saw Jenkins with “his hands on his face, and I could tell he was seriously affected at what had just happened.”

According to the report, the deputies called for an ambulance and Sheriff Richard Henderson arrived on the scene at approximately midnight. Dickerson and Jenkins were taken to Adena Pike Medical Center for observation and the investigation was turned over to BCI.

One officer reported arriving and finding several spent shell casings on the ground near the cruisers involved in the chase.