State Trooper Charged in Crash That Killed Owatonna 18-year-old

(Learfield News/Rochester, MN) — Minnesota State Trooper Shane Roper has been charged with second-degree manslaughter, criminal vehicular homicide and other counts after a May crash in Rochester that killed 18-year-old high school student Olivia Flores of Owatonna and injured five others, including the trooper and a ride-along passenger.

The Rochester Police Department says Roper activated emergency lights and accelerated to 98 miles an hour in an attempt to stop a motorist for a traffic violation, exited the highway near Apache Mall, and was traveling 83 miles an hour without emergency lights in a 40-mile-per-hour zone just before the crash.

Investigators say Roper took his foot off the accelerator 1.4 seconds before hitting the passenger side of the vehicle carrying Flores, and had driven at high speed without emergency lights at least four times that day, topping out at 135 miles per hour.

His discipline records show four prior crashes in his squad car due to either inattentive driving or excessive speed.