Truck driver dies after chase, struggle

A Texas trucker hauling Gatorade died early Wednesday after a fight with Spokane police.

His girlfriend, a 32-year-old woman, told police that the Dallas man had been injecting large amounts of methamphetamine since Sunday.

The death of 40-year-old Roger D. Hanks marks the fourth time this year that a crime suspect has died following a confrontation with law enforcement officers across the Inland Northwest. Two of those have involved the Spokane Police Department.

Acting Police Chief Jim Nicks referred to the two deaths as rare for the department, adding that “deaths like this are not unique to Spokane. And in this case the person was heavily using drugs.”

In the other case, 36-year-old Otto Zehm died March 18 after being shocked twice with a Taser and struck with a nightstick during a struggle with officers. Police are still waiting for the toxicology report on Zehm’s death, and the incident remains under investigation.

No nightsticks or Tasers were used during the early Wednesday struggle with Hanks, police said.

Sometime overnight, Hanks stopped to rest at a Broadway truck stop just off Interstate 90 in the Spokane Valley. His girlfriend told police that, for no known reason besides drugs, Hanks jumped in the truck with her and drove down I-90, weaving in and out of traffic.

The Peterbilt truck with Nebraska license plates traveled west on I-90 shortly before 3 a.m., said Cpl. Tom Lee of the Spokane Police Department. The truck then took the Hamilton Street exit and drove into the Gonzaga University area.

He appeared to be trying to run people down, police said. Witnesses said they heard a woman screaming as the Werner Enterprises truck passed them.

While the man was attempting to get through a turnabout at Sharp and Columbus, the semitruck backed into a parked van. At that point, the truck had slowed enough for the woman to jump out.

Police received a call at 3:06 a.m. from someone at a nearby Tesoro service station reporting the accident and that the Peterbilt was pulling away.

The trucker then drove erratically, but never faster than 25 mph, heading south on Hamilton, where police began a pursuit, Lee said. Hanks tried to ram at least one police car, he said.

Hanks, who police said weighed at least 300 pounds, made his way into the Riverpoint Campus, where police laid down a spike strip that flattened one tire but didn’t stop the truck. The slow pursuit ended near Riverside and Division.

Hanks refused to get out of the truck, Nicks said. A police canine was sent into the truck cab from the passenger side to encourage him to comply, but he didn’t. Officers physically removed Hanks from the cab, officials said, and the man engaged them in hand-to-hand combat.

Officers did not use Tasers, batons, pepper spray or other weapons before controlling and handcuffing the man at 3:20 a.m., said Lee. But just a minute later, they called for paramedics and removed the cuffs because the driver was suffering from an obvious, but unidentified, medical problem.

Hanks was pronounced dead at Sacred Heart Medical Center, police said. An autopsy performed Wednesday did not reveal any obvious causes of death. A toxicology analysis has been requested.

It’s not known how many officers engaged in the scuffle with Hanks; 12 or 13 responded to the scene, Nicks said. Two officers involved in the fight asked to take the day off, but none of the officers was placed on paid administrative leave.

According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, Hanks has been charged with three counts of driving while intoxicated and convicted twice since the 1980s.

Two calls to Werner Enterprises inquiring about Hanks were not returned.