Traffic stop turns to foot pursuit in Jasper Thursday

A traffic stop for speeding turned into a foot pursuit along Jasper’s Mill Street Thursday.

According to authorities, a Jasper police officer stopped a vehicle for speeding at the Mill and 25th street intersection at about 7 a.m. When the officer made contact with the driver, Luis F. Rocha-Ruiz, 38, of Indianapolis, he determined Rocha-Ruiz had never been licensed.

When he was asked to step to the back of the vehicle to be handcuffed to be taken into custody, Rocha-Ruiz pushed the officer back and then fled on foot. He headed south and ran through several backyards before being taken into custody at the Buffalo Trace Golf Course, police said.

Officers were forced to Taser Rocha-Ruiz to take him into custody.

He was taken to Memorial Hospital by ambulance to be treated. When he was released, he was booked into the Dubois County Security Center for misdemeanor charges of resisting law enforcement and operator never licensed.