On May 31, 2021, Roger Dale Keller, 71, a male, was at a home on Chilton County Road 954 in Jemison, Alabama when a call brought Jemison police officers to the property. Police were dispatched around 11:30 a.m. after a report that a man with a gun was in the front yard, threatening to shoot two people. By the time officers were on the way, witnesses told investigators that gunfire had already started.
As the first officer arrived, the scene was tense and exposed—no dark alley, no distant standoff, just an armed man standing in the open yard. According to the Jemison police chief’s account reported by local media, the officer saw Keller holding a gun. When the officer stepped out of the patrol vehicle, Keller turned his attention toward the officer and fired. The officer returned fire, and Keller was struck. He died there at the scene, while the officer was not injured.
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s State Bureau of Investigation took over the investigation, describing it as an officer-involved shooting and noting that the Jemison police chief requested their involvement. Reports stated that once the investigation was complete, the findings would be turned over to the Chilton County District Attorney’s Office. The coverage available did not describe any arrest of an officer or any other suspect connected to Keller’s death; instead, Keller was identified as the armed suspect who was killed during the exchange of gunfire.
In the days that followed, an obituary and burial information added the quieter details that often come after a violent end: Keller was described as being of Calera, Alabama, with a funeral service held on June 4, 2021, and burial at Alabama National Cemetery in Montevallo. Those notices focused on his family—siblings, nieces, and nephews—while the public record of his final morning remained bound to the yard on County Road 954, the emergency call, and the brief, deadly exchange that ended his life. 0search4
