Homicide Cold Case Arrest
Date 10-20-1987
Location 617 N. 3rd Ave. (Incident)
Long Beach, California (Arrest)
Victim Terrance Keenan, White, male, 22 years of age
Suspect Roger Cook (AKA Richard Earl Rodgers/assumed name)
To ensure proper justice to victims and their families, Phoenix Police Department Cold Case detectives work diligently and with great dedication to bring to justice those who have committed homicides in our city; no matter how old the crime.
On August 20, 2009, at approximately 1300 hours, Suspect Roger Cook was arrested by U.S. Marshals in Long Beach, California, for his involvement in the 1987 Phoenix homicide of Victim Terrance Keenan which occurred at 617 N. 3rd Avenue. This was a collaborative effort between Phoenix Police Department Cold Case/ICAT (International Criminal Apprehension Team) homicide investigators and the U.S.Marshals Service.
Background Information:
On October 20, 1987, at approximately 2059 hours, Cook confronted Keenan as he was standing near an apartment complex wall with a friend, V2 Richard Fair. Keenan's friends (unarmed) had been trying to visit another friend in the complex. Cook pointed a .357 caliber Smith and Wesson revolver at Keenan and shot him after a brief verbal exchange. After shooting, Keenan, Cook continued shooting towards Richard Fair but missed. The suspect was described as being very paranoid about security at the apartment complex and was known to confront people. Cook was arrested that evening in 1987 and booked. However for unknown reasons, the courts released Cook on his own recognizance three days after he was booked. Cook fled, and a warrant was subsequently issued in 1987 for his arrest.
In the spring of 2009, Phoenix PD Cold Case/ICAT and U.S.Marshals began working together on a list of outstanding homicide warrants from the 1980’s. In June of 2009, a U.S. Marshal stationed in Phoenix contacted Det. Mark Armistead (ICAT) looking for more information on Roger Cook. Through skilled research, Det. Armistead tracked the suspect to a long-term care facility in Long Beach, California. The U.S. Marshal in Phoenix worked with his counterparts in California to arrest the suspect without incident. During contact prior to the arrest, the suspect admitted that he was the subject in the 1987 homicide booking photograph. Cook was booked into a hospital facility in California and is currently awaiting extradition back to Phoenix.