Shots fired during a road rage incident near the Green River bridge in Jensen
- Travis Uresk
- Apr 21
- 4 min read
By Travis Uresk
4-21-25
| Jensen, Ut. | April 20th, 2025 |
At approximately 12:00 PM, UHP responded to a shots fired call on US-40 near milepost 160.
The call notes said: "Was just shot at by a guy in a silver Chevy truck with WY license plates." "Some kind of unknown pistol fired three or four rounds."
The victims described the suspect to the 9-1-1 dispatcher as a white male wearing a black hat and having a brownish beard.
The victims stated that they were traveling eastbound on US-40 just past the Jensen Green River bridge in the right-hand lane when a silver pickup was tailgating them. The victims described that the vehicle then went into the oncoming westbound lane to pass them. Once the truck passed, he suddenly stopped in front of them and pulled to the road's right shoulder.
The victims pulled in front of the truck to talk about the incident when the driver of the Chevy stepped out of his vehicle, producing a firearm, and shot three or four rounds in the direction of the victims before any words were exchanged.
One victim took cover at the front of his vehicle, and the passenger said he had started yelling at the suspect. The victims said that the suspect took off, heading eastbound on SR-40 toward Colorado.
The driver showed the trooper a picture of the suspect's license plate from Wyoming, returning to an expired GMC truck.
The driver described the handgun to Trooper Willoughby as a 9mm or a .380 with a black grip and a silver slide.
Sgt Carson found a telephone number for the company. While talking with the dispatcher about who was driving the GMC truck, he asked the dispatcher to have him turn around and meet with the police at the Utah Welcome Center in Jensen.
The dispatcher said that he would turn around to meet the Troopers there and that he was leaving from Craig, CO. Sgt Carson was able to obtain the suspect's ND driver's license information, which returned to 48-year-old Michael Earl Roloff.
When Roloff arrived at the Utah Welcome Center, he was checked for weapons. No weapons were found on his person.
Trooper Willoughby asked him to tell his side of what happened. Roloff described that he was traveling eastbound just past the Jensen Green River bridge when he was getting ready to pass traffic in the number one lane. A blue passenger car in front of him had moved over and began to pass a van in the number two lane. Roloff stated that he moved over to the number two lane to try and pass the blue passenger car, but they began to speed up.
Roloff then moved back to the number one lane, and as the two lanes merged into one lane, the blue passenger car hit their brakes. He then said he moved over into the oncoming westbound lane to avoid hitting them and began to pass them in a no-passing zone because he didn't see any traffic in the oncoming lane.
Roloff then told the trooper his speed reached 80 mph, and he saw that the victims were following right behind him, so he hit his brakes. They motioned for him to pull over, so he did.
As Roloff pulled over, the blue passenger car pulled in front of him, and the occupants exited the vehicle. Roloff exited his truck, and they exchanged words. Roloff described the situation as escalating, so he got back in his truck and left.
Roloff said the victims followed him to the Utah/Colorado border, where they turned around. Once Roloff received the call from Sgt Carson to turn around, he did so on his way to Craig, Co.
During the search of Roloff's vehicle, the troopers didn’t find any illicit or incriminating items in the truck. However, it is possible to believe that Roloff did destroy, conceal, or remove evidence of the firearm due to the time-lapse and distance that he was gone from the scene to where he turned around in Craig, CO.
Trooper Lorensen asked Roloff if he had any firearms, and Roloff stated that he had two. One is a 22 LR, and the other is a Sig Sauer 380-auto. Trooper Lorensen asked him what color the 380 was, and he described the gun as having a black frame and a silver slide.
Roloff also confirmed that after exiting his truck, he remained in the V of his driver door just as the victims had described. Trooper Lorensen then followed the victims back to the scene to see if they could find any casings from the firearm. The trooper found a 380-auto casing at the scene where the victims took him near milepost 158.
Trooper Willoughby placed Michael Roloff under arrest and seized his truck and clothing for gunshot residue testing. He was then taken to the Uintah County Jail and booked in for Two counts of aggravated assault, felony discharge of a firearm, obstruction of justice, reckless driving, discharge of a firearm on or across the highway, and driving on an expired driver's license.
Roloff told Trooper Lorensen that he lives in Baggs, WY, and works in Colorado. He is likely to leave the state due to work not being local. Roloff made statements indicating to Trooper Lorensen that he has a problematic temper and poor conflict-resolution skills. There is the factor of the unknown location of the firearm that is involved in the incident.
The court ordered that Michael Earl Roloff be held without bail.
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