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Incident Details

Cause of Death:
Gunfire
Date/Time of Incident:
Saturday, June 16, 1984
02:00 am
Incident to Death Duration:
Same day
Incident Location:
200 South 3rd Street, Terre Haute
Incident County:
Vigo
Incident Township:
Harrison
Weapon Used:
.44-caliber handgun
Suspect Disposition:
Died in prison

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Terre Haute Police Department

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Detective Harold Lee 'Sonny' Rogers

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Detective
Harold Lee 'Sonny' Rogers
Terre Haute Police Department
Saturday, June 16, 1984

Panel 38W, Line 1
Panel L29, Line 4

   Detective Harold Rogers was shot and killed during a disturbance.

   He was off duty playing in a band at the Wagon Wheel Night Club when two patrons engaged in an argument and the male subject brandished a handgun. Detective Rogers pulled out his own weapon, gunfire was exchanged and he was shot once in the head.

   Detective Rogers was transported to Union Hospital where he was dead on arrival. His father and one of his sons, who were also playing in the band, witnessed the shooting.

   The 39-year-old shooter, his 23-year-old girlfriend who was also struck by gunfire, his brother and sister-in-law, who the shooter was arguing with, all fled the scene. Police later found the weapon at his brother's trailer in Universal and the body of the shooter's girlfriend buried in a nearby cemetery.

   The suspect, a six-time convicted felon, had recently been released from the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas and walked away from a halfway house near St. Louis, Missouri. He was later convicted of murder and sentenced to 90 years in prison, where he died while incarcerated in 2006.

   Detective Rogers was survived by his three sons, daughter, two grandchildren, father and two sisters.


Personal Details

Age: 46
Law Enforcement Service:
21 years
Burial Place:
Grandview Cemetery, Terre Haute