New details of Hancock deputy killing shared in court as MBI agent testifies
A man who shot and killed a Hancock County sheriff’s deputy was hoping to commit suicide by attempting to have the officer kill him, an investigator in the case said.
That detail, and others, came out Thursday as Joseph Rohrbacker appeared in Hancock County court for his preliminary hearing. He’s been charged in the shooting death of Hancock County Deputy Lt. Michael Boutte.
County prosecutor Olen Anderson called Mississippi Bureau of Investigation agent Master Sgt. Jason Gazzo as a witness during the hearing.
Gazzo, who has reviewed body-camera footage and done multiple interviews with people who were at the scene, including with Rohrbacker, gave a description of what happened the day Boutte was killed.
The MBI agent arrived on scene as both Boutte and Rohrbacker were being flown to a New Orleans hospital.
Gazzo said the initial 911 call was made by Rohrbacker’s family members as either a welfare check or a suicidal threat — he said he could not recall which one.
He said that a 911 dispatcher was told Rohrbacker was armed with a knife and had access to a gun.
MBI agent describes how shooting happened
The 911 call came in at around 1 p.m., and initially Boutte and another deputy responded to the home of Rohrbacker’s brother, who lives a few hundred yards away from the defendant.
The family and a neighbor told the deputies that Rohrbacker had been making suicidal threats, sliced his dog’s throat, had walked back to his home and could possibly be armed. The deputies then drove to Rohrbacker’s home, initially passing it then turning around.
The brother and a neighbor, who had walked toward Rohrbacker’s home, flagged down the deputies and allegedly witnessed Rohrbacker begin shooting at Boutte’s vehicle has he drove up to the home. The neighbor said she then ran away.
Another neighbor closer to Rohrbacker’s home heard the gunfire and walked outside, she told Gazzo in an interview. She believed it was fireworks until she saw Rohrbacker crouched in front of his home, shooting at law enforcement, so she went back into her home.
Gazzo said Rohrbacker had a 12-gauge shotgun and immediately began shooting at Boutte’s vehicle as he pulled up ahead of the other Hancock deputy.
Boutte was able to get a “shots fired” call out on the radio and shot out of his window at Rohrbacker. Rohrbacker shot twice at his patrol car, once hitting the car and the other hitting Boutte in the head.
Gazzo said Boutte’s body camera video shows only the steering wheel and some footage from outside the front window, but that Boutte never left his vehicle. The car was still in drive.
The second deputy pulled up and was immediately shot at by Rohrbacker. It was only when the neighbor who was walking toward the home began to run that Rohrbacker attempted to shoot at her as well. Gazzo said that gave the deputy a chance to go around his car and shoot at Rohrbacker, hitting him twice in the abdomen.
Rohrbacker’s brother helped the deputy restrain him. The deputy deployed a Taser to attempt to get Rohrbacker to comply. He then instructed the brother to hold pressure to his wounds as he went to check on Boutte.
The deputy found Boutte in his vehicle, and performed what medical care he could.
Before the shooting
In an exclusive interview with the Sun Herald the day after the Feb. 1 shooting, Rohrbacker’s wife, Shannon, said her husband had “a mental meltdown,” shortly after he overheard a call about someone trying to accuse him of a child sex crime.
After Thursday’s hearing, he was charged with 8 new counts, including three counts of child molestation.
“There was no reasoning with him,” Shannon told the Sun Herald. “I called 911 to get him help. You could look at his face and know he wasn’t there anymore. I call it a blackout. He doesn’t remember what he does when he gets in that shape, and then reality hits. He’s never done anything this severe.”
She said, he started “cussing, kicking and screaming,” and nothing could calm him down.
Gazzo told the court about how he interviewed others who were inside a vehicle with Rohrbacker when he overheard the accusations he had molested child relatives.
“He overheard that, and it started a series of events,” Gazzo said.
Gazzo also interviewed Rohrbacker after he was released from the hospital about a month after the shooting.
Gazzo said that “in so many words,” Rohrbacker said he tried to attempt suicide, but then saw law enforcement coming toward his home and decided to attempted suicide by police, by threatening them so that they would shoot him. Rohrbacker told Gazzo that he began randomly shooting.
Mental health, education questioned
Defense attorney Philip Whittmann asked Gazzo if he had seen Rohrbacker’s medical records or his education level. Gazzo said he had not, but that multiple family members told him that he was bipolar and schizophrenic.
Whittman asked if during interviews Gazzo usually asks about levels of competence, education or mental status.
“I felt like Rohrbacker understood,” Gazzo said. He recalled in the interview that Rohrbacker not only talked with him about what happened, but also about having a job, his dog, his wife and “finding the Lord” in hopes to become a better person.
“As far as his mental status, I felt confident interviewing him,” he said.
Gazzo said that Rohrbacker told him he had a GED, and when asked about that and his education, Rohrbacker said he had graduated from a “special school.”
What’s next
The judge denied bond for a second time to Rohrbacker despite Whittmann asking again on Thursday. When someone is charged with capital murder in Mississippi, they are not entitled to a bond.
Whittmann said the next step is to get Rohrbacker evaluated by a mental health professional.
In court Thursday, Rohrbacker rocked back and forth and began to cry at the end of the hearing.
When asked about his current mental state, Whittmann said he did not believe his client knew what was happening.
“He’s in disbelief. I think the best way to describe it is to say he can’t comprehend it,” he said.
“I don’t believe his skills are there to understand it..”
This story was originally published March 25, 2021 at 5:59 PM.